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.......

Hot and dry air is spreading across the West. "The jet stream is in retreat into western Canada and high pressure is building over the West, allowing the hot dry air to spread from the Desert Southwest as far north as central British Columbia and Alberta," alerted Accuweather in an e-mail. Triple digits are expected for some parts of California, but the Los Angeles area should be around 86 today and hover in the low......

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......

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......

Expected rain today could bring flooding to mountain areas that are recovering from recent wildfires. "The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch from noon to this evening for Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles county mountain areas, excluding the Santa Monica range, and for the Antelope Valley," reports the LA Times.......

AP Photo/The Los Angeles Times, Spencer Weiner Blackwater might be a more appropriate name for the future of some private firefighting business. Robert at Calitics has been looking into federal firefighter shortages during the recent spate of wildfires (over 1700 in total since June 20). He reports that there have been "deliberate staffing shortages have left the USFS [US Forest Service] unable to do vital off-season brush clearance, and left them without the staffing......

A firefighter continue to clear brush from the path of the gap fire on Sunday July 6, 2008 (AP Photo/ LA Times, Spencer Weiner) With another spike in temperatures on its way, firefighters may not have as much help as they did this weekend with the cooler weather with its moist air currents. 100+ degree weather will take over starting today in the San Fernando Valley. Up north in Santa Barbara County near Goleta,......

Los Angeles County firefighters putting out the fire in Malibu on 4th of July (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas) Yesterday's wildfire in Malibu charred 25 acres before LA County Firefighters were able to full contain it at 8:14 p.m. The fire, which started at 3:27 p.m. in a mobile home park near Las Virgenes Street and Las Virgenes Canyon Road, was knocked down but had quickly spread to nearby brush, prompting more than 200 campers at......

Reports are coming in about firs in the Los Angeles area. At about 3:30, a fire broke out at mobile home near a state park in Malibu Creek State Park. While the home fire was knocked down, the fire has spread to hillside brush and has at least burned through 10 acres. Park visitors have been evacuated. Update: As of 6:43 p.m., the fire had burned 20 acres and was at 90% containment. "Hopefully within......

If a huge fire forcing 1700 homes to be evacuated wasn't enough, now residents of Goleta are being asked to conserve energy until 5:00 p.m. tonight. "A regional manager with energy company Southern California Edison, Cathy Hart, said it is inevitable more power lines will be burned by the Gap Fire," KSBY reports. "If residents keep stress off the system, outages could be kept to a minimum, Hart said." Last night, about 40,000 customers lost......

The National Weather Service is saying weather this holiday weekend "poses modest danger for fire," per the LA Times. But winds are expected to remain calm while humidity stays within critical ranges. Temperatures this weekend are forecasted to range from the mid-70s to the mid-80s to high 90s, depending if you are in a coastal area, in the city or in a valley, respectively.......

70 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino National Forest, a fire, dubbed the Ridge Fire, that broke out at 1:30 p.m. has already burned at least 100 acres. Over a 1700 fires have burned throughout the state in the past few weeks, but few have hit Southern California. The closest major fire is the Gap Fire in Goleta, which has burned 2400 acres so far forcing Santa Barbara County officials to declare......

A fire ripped through an empty for-sale house this morning destroying it and damaging two neighboring others at 21110 Pacific Coast Hwy. prompting an entire closure of the highway (lanes reopened at 7:20 a.m.). The house was being sold for $1-million dollars, but six people were evacuated with no injuries from the two houses. No cause has been determined yet, but thankfully, this fire did not start off another wildfire.......

A wildfire erupted last night in Goleta, eight miles Northwest of Santa Barbara. It began in the Los Padres National Forest forcing mandatory evacuations of about 40 homes. Yesterday, a small fire was knocked down in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita and nearby in Agua Dulce, a truck caught fire on the Northbound 14 Freeway, but was quickly doused before it could spread to surrounding brush.......

In 10 days, 30 homes have been lost among the 1,500 fires that have blazed through around 400,000 acres of land. "All my life I knew it might burn -- and it finally did," said a Big Sur resident who lost her home. "But when you live in a place like that, you have to take the consequences." If there ever was a warning not to do your own fireworks this week, this would be......

President Bush today declared the entire state of California to be in a state of emergency and ordered 75 percent federal funding for firefighting efforts. "I just took off with the plane down from Los Angeles and, literally from Los Angeles all the way up here, there was smoke, so you can see that there's fire everywhere," Gov. Schwarzenegger noted in an earlier request for federal aid. "This fire season has started with a vengeance,''......

A fire that began with a spark of lightning in Big Sur is now responsible for burning over 42 acres and is reportedly only 3 per cent contained. A 12-mile segment of the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) has been closed down as firefighters work to control the blaze. Over 1,000 fires have been burning in Northern California for the past week, many of which were ignited by lightning strikes. President Bush has declared a......

View Larger Map A wildfire broke out in various places this morning around 1:00 a.m. in Banning, 85 miles east of Los Angeles. Last reports state that it has grown to at 75 acres with 130 firefighters responding to battle the blaze. "In Northern California 13 fires have broken out in 72 hours. Homes and other structures have been destroyed, and evacuations are widespread," Warren Olney stated on KCRW's Which Way LA while asking if......

Photo by countess of maybe via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Records were broken yesterday around California and the hot weather is not looking to take a break this weekend. "The Valley is supposed to be a sweltering miasma of heat this weekend. Temperatures could hit triple digits," the Daily News reports in an interactive weather map for the Valley. But over the hill in the basin, temperatures are not as bad due to......

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......

View Larger Map A wildfire, dubbed as the "Big Horn Incident," broke out early this morning in the Bear Flat/Bighorn area of Mount Baldy has grown to 300 acres. Around 240 firefighters and five helicopters have been deployed to the area between the 5,800-foot and 6,200-foot levels of the 10,064-foot peak, according to the Associated Press. No homes are threatened yet, but six mostly empty vacation cabins were ordered to evacuate and the fire burns......

It has been almost a year since the massive Griffith Park fire. In a short time, the blaze ripped through Los Angeles' beloved outdoor space, charring 800 acres and destroying popular spots such as the bird sanctuary and Dante's View. After the fire settled, the now 33-year-old photographer Colin Brown took a walk with his dog and photographed what he saw. The images are haunting, sad and unexpected. Beginning Saturday night, his photos will be......

On the fourth day of the fire in Sierra Madre, most of the 1000 residents were allowed back home and schools reopened today. 59% of the fire is contained with a knockdown expected by Friday. Cooler temperatures and higher humidity that is predicted for today will aid the firefighters in their fight. No homes have been lost so far and four of the nearly 700 firefighters who responded have had minor injuries. Those injuries consisted......

Mike Whitaker, with Riverside CAL Fire, uses a hose to control a fire Monday, April 28, in Sierra Madre. Firefighters struggled in tough conditions Monday to push back the stubborn wildfire burning above homes in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ric Francis) While 300-400 people are being let back into their homes on the Eastside of the fire in Sierra Madre, Fifty-one homes in Pasadena were evacuated......

Photo by KeithJ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Hot temperatures, low humidity, and brisk winds helped to whip up the flames yesterday in the foothills of Sierra Madre, as a fire that broke out mid-afternoon Saturday has now blazed through approximately 400 acres. The fire was first reported shortly before 2 p.m. close to Santa Anita Canyon Road, and caused some initial evacuations from the nearby recreation areas, including a Boy......

Surfing on the Wall, by Carlito_Brigante via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. In the wee hours of the morning, a cop driving west on Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys crashed his patrol car into a tree in order to avoid a collision with another driver who was believed to have been under the influence. The suspected DUI driver allegedly was driving away from a bar, and got away after the cop's crash. A......

By the end of yesterday morning, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael Balzary, popularly known as Flea, sent a text message saying his home "had burnt to a crisp," according to the LA Times.Michael Balzary, a.k.a. Flea, had purchased a home for more than $10 million in Malibu last year, but the house that burned was another he owned in the hills west of Corral Canyon. That French country-style home is listed for sale......

The Malibu Wildfire, as seen from the beach. So far, the Malibu Wildfire has claimed no more homes since our reports earlier this morning. "We're at the mercy of the winds right now," Captain Mike Brown of the LA County Fire Department told CBS2. Responding to a Mutual Aid Request, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has dispatched four strike teams of firefighters, one LAFD helicopter, and a seasonally-contracted helitanker to assist the Los......

Despite the risk of building a home, selling a home and moving into a home in a high risk fire zone, companies, homeowners and governments still find it acceptable finds the LA Times today. "This is a land rush into danger," said Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and author of a recent book on wildfires. "A land rush by people who do not understand what they are doing and who......