SIERRA MADRE – Firefighters for a second day made major progress overnight in their quest to battle the Santa Anita Fire, officials said Wednesday morning.
The burn area was 93 percent contained as of Wednesday evening, officials said.
“It’s going real good right now,” said Nathan Judy, a spokesman for Southern California Interagency Incident Management Team 3, which is coordinating the response.
There are no longer active flames within the 584-acre burn area, Judy said.
“Pretty much, the fire laid down yesterday,” he said.
Cooler temperatures were aiding in the fight.
Wednesday’s highs were only in the 70s, down from the 90s on Saturday, when the blaze began, and earlier this week. Firefighters cleared hot spots Tuesday after three days of wildfires. Wednesday, firefighters – many of whom were dropped by helicopter into the Angeles National Forest on Tuesday – attempted to join ranks on the burn area’s northern edge.
They had to traverse steep terrain, with drops as high as 50 feet in some places, Judy said.
Full containment is expected by Friday.
There were 419 firefighters working on wrapping up the blaze, down from more than 1,000 on Tuesday.
Westcoast 911 source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune
On Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 5:31 AM, 23 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 6 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 2 Arson Units, 2 Urban Search and Rescue Units, 1 Rehab Unit, 2 CERT Coordinators, 1 Hazardous Materials Team, 4 EMS Battalion Captains, 7 Battalion Chief Officer Command Teams, 1 Division Chief Officer Command Teams, Emergency Air 1, Building and Safety, Structural Engineers, Street Maintenance, DWP, DOT and LAPD, all under the direction of Deputy Chief Mario Rueda, responded to the Major Emergency Structure Fire at 6263 W. Hollywood Bl. in the Hollywood area.
The initial call into the OCD Dispatch Center indicated a large commercial building was on fire at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. The first responding Firefighters on scene found a one story, multi occupancy commercial building with heavy smoke and fire showing from the one end of the building, known as the Basque restaurant and night club. Additional companies were requested immediately because of the size of the occupancy.
As fire companies arrived on scene, a monumental interior attack was initialed on the fire. Firefighters fought the intense blaze for approximately twenty minutes experiencing restrictive compartmentalization to the interior of the occupancy as well as other obstacles, which hindered efforts to get to the seat of the fire. The Incident Commander ordered companies to withdraw from the interior and go to a defensive attack to regain control of the fire. [click to continue…]