El Prieto at risk!/Station Fire (merged threads)

Winds push fire East to Brown Mountain North of Pasadena.

From Pasadena Star-News
Ben Baeder
Posted: 08/28/2009 10:46:57 PM PDT



ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - The Station Fire continued to rage through the San Gabriel Mountains on Friday night, topping Brown Mountain north of Pasadena.
Residents of the Meadows neighborhood in the northwestern-most part of Altadena said the fire probably came within the mile of the community, and a few homeowners there were asked to voluntarily evacuate, residents said.
Winds were blowing about 6 mph out of the northwest and the fire was "creeping toward" Brown Mountain north of Altadena, said Dianne Cahir of the U.S. Forest Service.
The fire had burned about 5,100 acres by 7 p.m. Friday and had likely grown since then, officials said.
One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported, Cahir said.
The fire started about 6 p.m. Wednesday night near the 29-mile marker of Angeles Crest Highway.
Driven by dry weather and temperatures topping 100 degrees, the fire has "sloshed around" in the canyons for three days as light winds guided it back and forth in the mountains.
Officials thought they were beginning to contain the fire Thursday night but it jumped breaks.
It is currently 0 percent to 5 percent contained, Cahir said.
The cause in under investigation. The fire touched off voluntary evacuations in La Canada Flintridge Thursday and Friday and fire officials said about 11:45 p.m. Friday that more evacuations were likely to be ordered Saturday morning.


Saturday, 8AM from JPL lot



Loma Alta trailhead between El Prieto and Millard Canyon



LAFD staging at Loma Alta Park

 

Just updating - winds are still favorable, seems to be holding slightly southeast of the Brown saddle. It's still moving down the Arroyo, but at a slow pace. No aircraft runs going on that I see: they're surely focusing downwind.

Edit: Hmm, now that I think about it I'm not 100% sure if the saddle is behind the currently burning ridge or the one just to the right. Anyhow, pics will speak for themselves.







(Not going to leave the pics up for too long, don't want to give my friend's webserver unnecessary heartburn)

 

You can have your pics hosted on Photobucket, or copy and paste them in your post.

I believe the Brown saddle has already burned from what I saw this AM.

 

This is a sad day.... Now i gotta go brake the news to my bike(sigh)

 

Ok, definitely the saddle there - you can see the radio antenna in the corner, so I assume that's the valley with El Prieto just to the right.



Bulldozers getting to work clearing a break above Altadena



Skycrane crew seriously getting their cowboy on. The fire line is still moving fast at the upper elevations.

 

i love this rides out here ive been 2wicew
the second the dude i was rideing with got sick from partying to late at night so went back
been trying to go there ever since im on jojo1a youtube with a video or 2

how bad is the burn i guess its just makeing one huge wide fat single track up and down the mountain now

 

Terrible news

 

That blows' the Ken Burtin trail is an Awesome trail built by mountain bikers.
I hope it does not burn.

 

NRamzi, those are awesome shots, thanks!!!
Where'd you shoot them from and with what kind of camera?

Sorry, it's too late, KB's toast

 

Glad to help out. Basically shot them from Starlight Crest with a Panasonic ZS1 pocketcam.

I haven't been on a singletrack just after a burn - does it become actually unrideable or just a moonscape?

 

Useless they run a dozer down the trail, it will still ridable just kinda eire and less chance of getting poison oak.


Dean

 

Do they usually close a trail after its burned for a long period of time or do they let trail users back on after a few weeks?

 

mt wilson trail in sierra madre was closed for prollly a month back in april 2008. needed some trail work because of slides.

1PM update- from JPL parking lot it was hard to tell exactly what was going on- except for sure fire in lower arroyo seco (i.e. around the trailhead to el P). looked like flames had crested onto the hilltops above the highest houses (which would mean fire had progressed down canyon, across the stream and trail, and south up the hill. ..

at this juncture am more hoping the fire path continues to travel northwest and avoid Sunset and Middle Merrill..

 

usually a while... for the place to rehabilitate...

the santa ana's, the luge etc were closed for a while...

 

Bad wind shift, the valley with El P is burning - I have to skeddadle.

 

Depends on the land managers. I have been riding in AZ when a prescribed burn was going on and they did not close the forest. Parts of the Santa Anas are still close from a fire nearly two years ago.

Dean

 

I took a few pics from Lake ave today.

http://mottmcfly.smugmug.com/Other/Fire/9448485_CCWXE#633716458_n5XJv

Mott

 

Some more pix from sat


View from Inverness drive towards La Canada


So Sad! There goes my mountain!

 

Sorry about that, there was an ugly flare up - word has it that a house caught fire and was quickly doused by a concentrated air attack.