Hundreds of frightened homeowners in a dead-end pricey hillside enclave were OK Monday as firefighters expected full containment of a roaring brush fire in Mandeville Canyon that burned at least 55 acres.
Some homes had been evacuated, traffic was a mess as vehicles were blocked from Mandeville Canyon Road at Sunset Boulevard and huge dark plumes of smoke could be seen from much of Los Angeles. But firefighters managed to keep the flames from damaging any of the multi-million-dollar residences along the winding road.
The Getty Center, some miles from the fire, stopped allowing new visitors to the famed art museum as a precaution, but there was no eventual danger.
The flames were 95 percent contained by a line of cleared vegetation Monday morning and new crews of firefighters were expected to replace the firefighters who worked all night, according to Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The fire was apparently started by a worker clearing brush. It is with some irony that brush clearance can be required as a fire safety measure, although there was no word of why the brush was being removed.
The road is lined by multi-million dollar mansions along “lower” Mandeville, and homes are smaller as the road narrows on the upper reaches of the road. Nevertheless, even the smaller homes are valued in the millions.
The flames were 70 percent contained by a line of cleared vegetation late Sunday and teams of firefighters remained on the scene, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
By the time the blaze was reported at 12:45 p.m. Sunday it had burned three to four acres of brush near a house in the 2960 block of Mandeville Canyon Road, fire department spokeswoman Stewart said.
An hour later, it had spread to eight acres, burning up hillsides toward the Mountaingate Country Club, Stewart said.
By 3:30 p.m., the acreage burned had ballooned to 30 acres, she said.
At 10:40 p.m. Sunday the acreage had risen to about 55 acres but a containment line of cleared brush was about 70 percent around the flames and resources sent by mutual aid agencies had been released, Stewart said.
“LAFD remains on scene throughout the evening and expects to gain 100 percent containment which will be updated in the morning,” she said.
A volcano-like smoke plume was visible across the Westside and San Fernando Valley, as the fire consumed moderate to thick brush in an area just off Mandeville Canyon Road, a dead end thoroughfare that snakes up a deep canyon, lined by expensive view houses.
Mandeville Canyon Road was shut down at Sunset Boulevard to accommodate fire fighting operations, Stewart said.
Some 115 firefighters were on the scene within 70 minutes and about 160 were there by 3:30 p.m., she said.
The city fire department dispatched two water-dropping helicopters, and the county fire department employed another one, in addition to five camp crews to help the ground attack against the flames, Stewart said.
A command post was set up to coordinate the various firefighting agencies at Mountaingate Drive, according to Stewart.
Fire trucks were staged for assignment at Sunset Boulevard, two-plus miles downhill from the fire. Another command post was set up at the Mountaingate country club, north of the fire and just west of the San Diego (405) Freeway.
Firefighters asked Los Angeles police to be ready in case houses needed to be evacuated. Eventually five homes were cleared, Stewart said. By late evening residents with IDs were allowed to return to their homes.
No houses were burned and no injuries were reported.
Traffic was snarled at the bottom of the canyon, and only emergency vehicles were allowed north of there.
One family told firefighters they evacuated their home so quickly they left food cooking on a stove. Crews were sent to turn it off.
Equipment that had been assigned to an earlier fire in Lake View Terrace was redirected to a fire station in Van Nuys after the Brentwood fire broke out.
—City News Service