The Station Fire in the mountains of Pasadena is burning out of control and growing rapidly. It has just been reported that two firefighters lost their lives in a vehicle accident near Mt. Gleason in the midst of being heroes. Awful.
The good news is that the Santa Ana winds are non-existent. The bad news is that the terrain of the mountains plus the super low humidity has made this fire somewhat unstoppable. It is currently only 5% contained and isn’t expected to be under control until September 8th.
The Mount Wilson Observatory and communications center is threatened by the new path of the fires now moving Southeast. But it’s just been reported that fire crews have been given approval to stick around on the mountain near the Observatory, increasing the chances of protecting it. Still, major communications operations and news centers are at risk.
You can see on these maps a red push-pin in the bottom right corner. That is where I live in Altadena. I’m on the East coast visiting family currently, but of course asking for prayers for this fire to be contained. And particularly for the families of those local firefighters who died today.
that’s nuts…i was just in Sunland/Tujunga area for a few weeks last month…EPIC …
Without a doubt, the most beautiful part of greater LA… not to mention critically important… if those communication towers up on Wilson go out, LA is more or less under a total TV/radio blackout (including police and fire, military, etc).
Very scary… here’s hoping the hurricane hitting Baja right now still has some rain left in it by the time it heads north and no more lives or livelihoods are threatened…