PALMDALE – Hundreds of firefighters Tuesday night battled a wind-driven hillside brush fire near the 37000 Block of Avenue S in Palmdale.
“We have a third-alarm assignment with approximately 250 firefighters responding,” said L.A. County Fire Inspector Tony Imbrenda. “We have three water dropping helicopters from L.A. County Fire Department working the fire, there’re two [bull]dozer teams from L.A. County Fire, and we have a couple of [bull]dozer teams from U.S. Forest Service.”
Palmdale Sheriff’s Station began receiving 9-1-1 calls starting at 9 p.m. indicating there was a brush fire southwest of the Anaverde Community.
By 11 p.m., the brush fire had burned more than 200 acres and was still spreading due to 20 mph winds.
“Because of strong winds, the rate of fire spread is pretty significant,” Imbrenda said.
Imbrenda said some structures were threatened early on, but were now out of danger.
“They’re talking about voluntary evacuation orders of the Lazy T Ranch area,” he said.
As of 11:15 p.m., the fire department had not requested home evacuations of any area; but they were asking residents in the surrounding areas to prepare themselves in case evacuations were ordered.
Elizabeth Lake Road, between 25th Street West and Godde Hill Rd, and Avenue S, West from Tierra Subida, were closed to make way for fire personnel and equipment.
No injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire is under investigation, fire officials said.
UPDATED at 11:50 p.m. 7/3/2012: Around 11:45 p.m., the fire department called knockdown and moved to the mop up stage, which was expected to last through the night. The helicopters were being released and the department was maintaining fire watch, according to the last report from fire officials.
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Stinger says
Final reported acreage burned in this fire was 433 acres.
Concered says
The roof, the roof….the roof it on fire!
Thanks to the wonderful members of the LACFD for their quick and brave work!!
David Cox says
Thanks for the very timely article and update.
This fire illustrates in an extremely timely way exactly *why* the City of Palmdale has banned Safe and Sane fireworks from being used in this area of the city limits. The brush just ignites like gasoline. We still don’t know the cause of this fire. I’ve noticed that the brush in this area – and throughout the Antelope Valley generally – is tinder dry. We sure *don’t* need any brush fires.
July 4 – Independence Day – is always the busiest day of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. They need and appreciate your help and support. Please be sure to thank them when you see one of them out and about. And above all, please be fire safe today and everyday. I notice that many areas of Colorado are foregoing fireworks displays and use this year due to the wildfire situation they have been dealing with, especially in Colorado Springs and the Waldo Canyon Fire. A wise course. Will we do the same? Up to the citizens to do the right thing. . . before governmental bodies pass laws prohibiting it. Your choice: freedom or forced restrictions?
It’s evident from this fire that an access road needs to be completed for the Anaverde residents from Avenue S to Elizabeth Lake Road along something near what would be 25th Street West according to the Los Angeles County street grid system we have here. In Colorado Springs, one neighborhood that had to evacuate had just one arterial road to exit on, causing a traffic jam and slowing the evacuation down considerably. I can see lawsuits over this kind of situation. Heads up. . . time to see what can be done before Palmdale gets sued over this down the road.
J. Ripper says
That access road would’ve been built if the City Ranch development had ever been completed. I vaguely think I recall hearing that one thing that held up Anaverde for so many years was skating around the requirement to have 2 ingress/egress points to the development. My memory is vague, so I can only speculate that finally the powers that be decided to waive that requirement with the reasoning that someday, if and when City Ranch is ever developed, that you would then have that 2nd route. Anyone care to speculate how many more years? Decades?