Hollywood Hills...on fire

I was whiling away my time in the office when I heard commotion in the conference room...out of our 8th floor window I could see smoke and flames in the distance. We switched on the TV and watched coverage of what we found out to be the the Hollywood Hills fire.

The LA Times reported the story: "A brush fire erupted this afternoon in the Hollywood Hills near the Oakwood apartment complex, darkening the sky with thick plumes of smoke visible through much of the city.

At least five helicopters and about 200 firefighters rushed to battle the blaze, reported about 12:50 p.m. around the 3600 block of Barham Boulevard, near Universal City, said Ron Myers of the Los Angeles Fire Department."

"Two teenage males from Illinois suspected of setting the fire turned themselves in to authorities, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference. A witness observed the teens, ages 16 and 17, starting the fire, he said.

"They were old enough to know what they were doing," the mayor said.

Fire officials said at an earlier news conference that they will send arson investigators to probe the cause of the blaze, which burned at least 150 acres by 4 p.m.

For more than 90 minutes, the fire chewed through thick, dry vegetation, threatening apartments, the Warner Bros. Studios, even the iconic Hollywood Sign."

Don't worry, we survived. I got home in record time as traffic had evaporated and Barham to the 101 were still open to traffic...?!