Firefighting operations will continue overnight and into Tuesday at a stubborn brush fire in Mandeville Canyon that has charred about 55 acres.
The flames were 95 percent contained by a line of cleared vegetation Monday morning and new crews of firefighters replaced the firefighters who worked all night, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.
“LAFD operations will continue throughout the night and well into tomorrow with ground crews on patrol and LAFD helicopters available,” Humphrey said.
The fire was accidentally caused by a worker doing weed abatement for brush clearance, said the LAFD’s Margaret Stewart. By the time it 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, she said.
An hour later, it had spread to eight acres, burning up hillsides toward the Mountaingate Country Club, Stewart said.
At 10:40 p.m. 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.
A volcano-like smoke plume was visible Sunday 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.
Firefighters asked Los Angeles police to be ready in case houses needed to be evacuated. Eventually five homes were cleared, Stewart said. By late Sunday evening residents with IDs were allowed to return to their homes.
No houses were burned and no injuries were reported.
–City News Service