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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - For a third day, crews today will fight a 50-acre brush fire that broke out near the Mount Wilson Observatory in the Angeles National Forest northeast of Los Angeles and is 35 percent contained.
Authorities cautioned that Santa Ana winds could make a return today, potentially stifling progress on the blaze, which broke out for unknown reasons about 4:45 a.m. Tuesday in the general area of Mount Wilson-Red Box Road. The fire led to the precautionary evacuation of the landmark observatory, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
No injuries were reported and no structures were immediately threatened, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported. Deputies from the sheriff's Crescenta Valley Station helped evacuate the observatory's employees on Tuesday.
About 140 residents of the Chantry Flats area were notified about the fire but not ordered to evacuate, according to Angeles National Forest officials.
More than 440 firefighters were assigned to the fire.
Water-dropping helicopters and air tankers have helped firefighters keep the blaze in check, although it continues to creep and smolder, authorities said.