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Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive
The northern boundary of the fire was Mulholland Drive. On the south it was about one-half mile above Sunset Boulevard. On the west, the flames were past Mandeville Canyon at one point and moving toward Sullivan Canyon. The eastern boundary reached to Beverly Glen and to the edge of Benedict Canyon.
There are sixteen companies which normally respond with a pumper and a tank wagon. These tank wagons carry from 350 to 700 gallons of water. All are located in stations adjacent to brush areas. Ten other companies have auxiliary booster tank apparatus, each with a capacity of 400 gallons.
At each of the two Mountain Patrol quarters is a 1,000 gallon tank wagon. A 2,500 gallon tanker responds from the Van Nuys Airport to major brush fires. Mountain Patrolmen utilize eleven patrol pickup trucks equipped with small booster pumps and tanks containing approximately 150 gallons of water. Supplementing these units are various other types such as squad companies and heavy utility apparatus.
The protection of all brush lands within the city are under the direct supervision of the Mountain Patrol Division of the fire department. This division is responsible for fire laws throughout the mountainous watershed areas. Perimeter companies cooperate in fire prevention activities by conducting inspections of improved properties in many brush localities. At the two Mountain Patrol stations on Mulholland Drive there are quartered road grading machinery and tractors. Mountain Patrol has constructed and maintains over one hundred miles of fire roads. An even greater amount of fire breaks is maintained. Nearly one-third of the total area of the city is mountainous brush regions. The area served by the entire fire department is 457.9 square miles and the population at the time of the last census was 2,537,000.
Informal, but extremely effective, mutual aid agreements exist with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the departments of the neighboring municipalities that surround the city. The U.S. Forestry Service and the California Division of Forestry sends valuable assistance in watershed fires. Air tankers are procured through arrangements with the U.S. Forestry Service. Additional manpower for ground operations at brush fires can be obtained from county juvenile camps and from the various military services. Civil Defense fire apparatus are acquired through the facilities of the State level of the organization. Many agencies, both public and private, furnish direct and indirect support at large fire emergencies.
The Bel Air-Brentwood area is served by both a gravity flow and a pumped water system. From the San Fernando Valley on the north, large 60 and 72-inch trunk lines supply pumping stations which lift water into a number of reservoirs and tanks situated in the mountains. A 16-inch main which follows Mulholland Drive above the fire areas is fed from these storage points. From this main, 8 and 12-inch distribution mains go down into the canyons and along the ridges of the southern slope to supply the higher portions of the canyons and to assist in the maintenance of proper levels in various holding tanks. Distribution mains extend through the entire north-south length of the canyons between Mulholland Drive and Sunset Blvd. This latter thoroughfare follows the line of foothills on the southern side of the mountains. Automatic pressure regulators installed in these canyon mains balance supplies between the gravity flow from the summit and those pumped from the south.
In Stone Canyon are two reservoirs having a combined total capacity of 10,894 acre-feet. A large main goes south from these reservoirs to connect to a 36-inch supply main which follows Sunset Blvd. westerly toward Pacific Palisades near the ocean. Strategically placed pumping stations carry water from this main up into the lower canyons and ridges north of Sunset Blvd. to supply the smaller mains and holding tanks of the Bel Air and Brentwood sections. On the first day of the fire, two new pumping stations and one 16-inch main which were nearing completion were rushed into service for the first time to augment water supplies.
More News from Los Angeles
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