On Saturday, known arsonist Gary Allen Lintz was arrested on suspicion of starting that day's fire. But yesterday in court, he was charged with setting all the fires in the park since July 27. The 43-year-old transient pleaded not guilty to the July fire and the multiple fires he allegedly set on August 4, 16 and 23. "The criminal complaint alleges great bodily injury to a firefighter - who was hurt while fighting the Aug.......

After Saturday's fire, undercover arson investigators patrolling the park arrested Gary Allen Lintz, a 43-year-old Glendale transient who was already under probation for arson, according to officials. It is believed he was responsible for the series of park fires lit last week, but he was only charged for Saturday's fire when arrested. Saturday's fire burned approximately 3 acres and took around an hour to knockdown, according to the LA Times.......

Just after 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported "a small fire in Griffith Park." A knockdown was called at 2:56 p.m., according to LAFD Spokesperson d'Lisa Davies over the phone, but she did not know the acreage of the fire yet. There are also some unconfirmed reports of a possible suspect in custody, but those are just rumors at the moment. This is the fourth time a fire or fires has......

"Griffith [Van Griffith, great grandon of Col. Griffith Jenkins Griffith who the park is named after] is scheduled to appear today at Los Angeles City Hall to push for historic-cultural monument status for the park his great-grandfather gave the city 112 years ago," reports the LA Times. "At 4,218 acres, Griffith Park would be the largest such monument in the country. Griffith said the designation is needed to prevent commercial developments similar to those briefly......

Someone called the fire department late this morning saying they saw a plume of smoke rising from Griffith Park. The Los Angeles Fire Department dispatched a helicopter, but found nothing. "When our aerial recon took an aerial view, they saw nothing," d'Lisa Davies, LAFD spokeswoman, said over the phone.......

The Griffith Park Fire in 2007 | Photo by Atwater Village Newbie Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents the district that has Griffith Park within it, is meeting up with residents and hikers in two meetings tonight to discuss the seven fires that were lit at the park this past weekend. Arson is suspected. “We need the public to be our eyes and ears in the park,” said the Councilmember in a statement. “These fires......

The multiple fires at Griffith Park were 100% contained at 7 PM last night, according to an alert sent out by the Los Angeles Fire Department this morning. A total of five fires on the northern side of the park began within two hours of each other yesterday afternoon burning approximately 50 acres. Arson is suspected. One firefighter was hospitalized with non-life-threatening facial injuries after being struck with hose fittings whe battling a fire.......

The brush fire in Griffith Park near Travel town, first reported at approximately 2 p.m. today, is now 60% contained and has no active hot spots, according to an LAFD alert. 300 firefighters from multiple area agencies were on scene and about 50-60 acres have burned so far. The fire is expected to be totally contained by midday tomorrow. Fortunately, there have been no injuries so far.......

The Los Angeles Fire Department is responding to a small brush fire in Griffith Park near Travel Town. Park Rangers called in the report of a fire covering "approx 3 acres of medium brush" according to d'Lisa Davies of the LAFD. On Thursday we learned that "Fire weather" was back in California, as hot, dry air is spreading up the west coast and into Canada. The California Highway Patrol soon after requested a shut down......

For beer lovers tired of all these wine tasting events, your time has finally come! A couple weekends ago, the Pine Meadows Lawn of the Autry National Center was the site of the first annual Brew Ha Ha. A few dozen microbreweries and brewpubs represented at the beer tasting festival, and some great catering was provided to soak up all the beer. Live entertainment was provided by Bill Dwyer, who you may know from watching......

Reported at 2:27 p.m. this afternoon, a grass and brush fire of about 2-3 acres in size has been reported south of the Mineral Wells Trail in the northern part of Griffith Park. Los Angeles Spokesman Brian Humphrey reports that 100 firefighters have reported to the scene and there have been no injuries, no structures threatened and no formal evacuations ordered, as of 2:54 p.m. The last fire at the park was on Sunday, July......

Today, Councilman Tom LaBonge announced that he has asked City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo for a legal opinion on including cyclists to ride at the Griffith Park holiday light festival that had once been open only to automobile traffic. Public pressure to allow cyclists on all days that cars use the road has been building up for some time now. “I’d like to include bikes along with automobiles, but my first priority is to protect the......

Tonight is ride number two for Councilman Tom LaBonge's cutely name "Tour LaBonge" bicycle ride series where constituents are invited to come along. At 6:15 p.m., riders will meet at the Mulholland Fountain (Riverside Dr./Los Feliz Blvd.) and embark on a 10-mile ride along the LA River and in Griffith Park. Half way through, it's ice cream time at Travel Town, which is near where a brush fire ignited on Sunday afternoon, and then back......

Saturday afternoon on the Pine Meadows Lawn of the Autry National Center in Griffith Park will turn into the site of the "Brew Haw Haw" beer tasting festival to raise money ($50/tix) for the SoCal chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There will be microbrews, food, comedy and bands. And in case you missed it, yesterday's weekly PhiLAnthropist post featured the Skid Row Neighborhood Watch Walk, a Venice Beach clean-up and an event with High......

A view of the fire yesterday in Griffith Park | (AP Photo/John Antczak) Yesterday's 25-acre brush fire in Griffith Park forced the evacuation of nearby zoo patrons as well as animals from a breeding facility, like the endangered Condors. There was a quicker-than-usual response to the fire, which was first report at about a quarter to one in the afternoon, because firefighters from Hollywood were "already deployed nearby to conduct a brush fire drill,"......

A five acre brush fire broke out near Travel Town and the LA Zoo this afternoon around 12:45 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. 32 LAFD fire companies reported to the scene with help from LA County, Burbank and Glendale fire departments totaling approximately 200 firefighters on the ground. As of 2:00 p.m. no injuries, evacuations or damaged structures were reported and a knockdown had not been declared yet. "It's not progressing in......

Last night's 13th Annual Griffith Park Holiday Light Festival community meeting opened with the DWP reps explaining to the public that the Festival is off limits to cyclists because "these aren't public streets." Protests from the audience elicited a response from Councilmember Tom LaBonge to have the lawyers take a look at it. When it was pointed out that they are indeed public streets, operated by the City of Los Angeles and open to the......

Last month, Col. Griffith J. Griffith's grandson and the Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust put in an application has applied to formally preserve the park by getting it designated as a historic landmark. "We're doing it to stop commercialization," the grandson told the Daily News. "They want to build aerial trams, hotels and build restaurants. "We don't need any of it. I believe my great-grandfather would be turning over in his grave." Lots of people......

MUSIC One of the pioneers of Rock en Español music, Aleks Syntek, hits the House of Blues. Helping to establish the music genre in the 80s, Aleks has had numerous hits in his long and illustrious career. 7:30 pm // House of Blues // 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood // $29 MORE MUSIC The Hollywood Bowl presents Swing Night!, featuring Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Manhattan Transfer, Sophie Milman and Hollywood Hornets. A great......

Tickets for 89.9 KCRW's presentation of Sigur Rós on October 2nd at The Greek go on sale Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Lucky for you, LAist running a contest giving you a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show before tickets go on sale. For past contests related to the Greek, we've asked you what to do in Los Feliz and what's so great about Griffith Park. In light of high gas prices......

It was a beautiful night at the Los Angeles Zoo; perfect weather and a perfect setting made the LA Zoo's annual "Beastly Ball" an event to remember. Celebrities and guests wandered the grounds of the zoo, feasting on gorgeous dishes prepared by the city's best restaurateurs and interacting with friendly animals like a boa constrictor, an armadillo, and a gray horned owl. Participating restaurants included Yamashiro, Typhoon, Pink's, Malo, El Cholo, Fabiolus Café and many,......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist The people behind SaveGriffithPark.org write in and ask the hard questions: It looks like several powerful corporations and the officials they keep have found an unprecedented way to privatize Griffith Park. If you're in the park this weekend – that is, if you're allowed – have a camera and paper handy to record the goings-on. Press releases posted by Forbes and Business Wire reveal that Saturday, June 21st, Disney-Pixar is......

Yesterday, a City Council committee passed a food recycling pilot project that would give 8,700 homes in South LA 2-gallon composting bins (however, still no locally based farm being provided). The Daily News says that 27% of black-bin waste is food equalling out to 230,000 tons of it a year. Food would be picked up and taken to a downtown transfer station and hauled up to a nearby Bakersfield composting facility. Officials will be evaluating......

Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) and Alison Krauss (Union Station), whose critically-lauded, Gold album 'Raising Sand' continues to be a top-seller worldwide, play two shows at The Greek Theatre on Monday, June 23 and Tuesday, June 24 (you can buy tickets here: 6/23 | 6/24). Plant and Krauss - along with 'Raising Sand' producer and band leader T Bone Burnett - are creating a show that will feature songs from their collaborative release, as well as......

On the heels of the annual Great LA River CleanUp comes another large do-gooding river activity tomorrow morning. 2,000 people from Heal the Bay, the NAACP, PAVA and ANAHUAK will be cleaning the Glendale Narrows section of the LA River along with Councilman Eric Garcetti and other neighborhood and organization leaders. "The L.A. River is something we all have in common. Only if all communities work together will we be able to restore and revitalize......

The DWP has much to be proud of, not the least of which is the prestigious EcoMoron Award it picked up last year in recognition of its commitment to an auto-centric and bike-free Griffith Park Holiday Festival of Lights. Tonight, cyclists ride to the Griffith Park Ranger Station to join the Sierra Club, local Neighborhood Councils, Homeowner Associations, Community groups and Equestrians in asking the DWP to lift the ban on bikes and to instead......

Last weekend, National Geographic, the National Parks Service, California State Parks Department, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy sponsored a BioBlitz biodiversity census to count the many different plant and animal species living in the Santa Monica Mountains. During the 24 hour non-stop species inventory, 200 scientist-lead teams of volunteers from the greater Los Angeles community documented 1,364 species of flora and fauna. Among the different species inventory teams was a Griffith Park bat-seeking expedition......

Yesterday, a Los Angeles City fire helicopter makes a water drop on a brush fire near the Griffith Observatory with the Planetarium and the telescope domes seen in the background. (AP Photo/Kevork Djanse) Yesterday's fire was knocked down quickly, but it started to bring back memories of last year, almost to date. The big 2007 wildfire charred 800 acres, but when yesterday's fire began, the Los Angeles Fire Department went aggressively after it, sending......

Photo by skunks via Flickr One year ago today, the blaze that ripped through more than 800 acres at Griffith Park began. Seen from all over Los Angeles (see this photo essay), the sight of the fire eating up Los Angeles' gem saddened many in the city. It took three days to knockdown. Today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilman Tom LaBonge and other city officials will be holding a ceremony to honor those who fought......

Yesterday, two men visiting Los Angeles took a hike in Griffith Park and before they knew it, it was dark. Probably not a place for night hiking if don't know your way around, especially with the constant tease of being within sight of the city lights below, but many cliff jumps away. Eventually, they were on their cell phone with park rangers trying to find their way back to their car, but after some time,......