Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to a “slow-moving” brush fire near 1400 N Palisades Drive in The Highlands, according to LAFD Spokesperson Margaret Stewart.
The fire, reported at 9:50 a.m. on November 13, was in “heavy brush adjacent to the reservoir” and was “topography (not wind) driven with steep slopes.”
By 10:57 a.m. more than 60 firefighters on scene had stopped all forward progress.
“The precisely targeted, rapid water drops from LAFD Air Operations combined with the firefighters’ aggressive fire attack on the ground held the fire to approximately one acre (revised from initial size up [of five acres]),” Stewart wrote. “No structures damaged and no injuries reported. Due to the steep terrain and the work required to conduct a mop up operation, all resources [remained] on scene.”
The fire cause is “unintentional,” according to LAFD Public Information Officer Captain Erik Scott, and from a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power mower that had struck a rock with its blade—“sparking and igniting the hillside.”
“LADWP was unable to extinguish the fire with their water tender and quickly called 911 for assistance,” Scott reported.
—SARAH SHMERLING
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