A few days ago the L.A. County Fire Department gave the media a quick tour of the summit of Mt. Wilson. The Bobcat Fire, one of the biggest fires in county history, was battled back by heroic Los Angeles County firefighters, who put in 24-hour shifts to keep the flames away from the observatory and television and communication antennae. Most of the fire battle was fought from above with aerial assets that kept the flames from surrounding the mountain. The top of Mt. Wilson consists of a thin isolated bucolic area of land 5,712 feet above Los Angeles, where a billion dollars’ worth of communications and astrophysics equipment are delicately planted. Much of the top of the mountain is now colored pink with fire retardant and ash.
“Widowmakers,” large trees that have been burned by fire and are ready to fall and kill people, along with possible pits made by ground fire covered by loose dirt, make the area around the mountaintop too dangerous to walk around. Highway 2 and access to Mt. Wilson remains closed. The cause of the Bobcat Fire is under investigation; Southern California Edison equipment has been mentioned as a possible source of the 114,000-acre fire. The giant blaze was 63% contained as of Sunday, Sept. 27.