Griffith Park Brush-Fire

I was sitting in the breakroom with my coworkers today, enjoying a peaceful lunch, when one of my coworkers looked out the window and exclaimed, "I think that's a fire." I turned to look out the window and sure enough there was a small puff of smoke climbing from the hills. In a matter of seconds the fire had grown and there were clouds of smoke billowing into the air. I turned to my preceptor and said, "Do we call the fire station, the police, 911?"

As we watched the fire grow and the flames rise above the ridge of the hill, my preceptor got on the phone to the fire department. The rest of the afternoon we listened to the sound of the fire trucks heading up to the hills as we checked on the progress of the fire helicopters from the window of our break room.

It's amazing to me how quickly the fire spread. At one point it appeared close to some homes but then the winds must have shifted and the fire took off over the ridge and towards the zoo. Unreal. Below are a few pictures I pulled off of some of the news websites here.




***UPDATE***
So apparently in the last couple of hours, the fire has shifted and is now no longer threatening the zoo. Instead it is back on the southern side of the hollywood hils, the side of the houses. This means there are mandatory evacuations and the possibility that homes will go up in flames. The fire is also now progressively getting closer to the Griffith Park Observatory. Ironic that my roommate and I were planning a trip there this Friday for our last roommate outing in LA. My support goes out to all the displaced families and the firefighters and pilots working to battle this blaze. Let's hope there's good news in the morning.