Mount Wilson's famed observatories and broadcast towers now seem in a better position to survive Los Angeles' Station wildfire, thanks to the ongoing and relentless efforts of firefighters.
Officials on Monday and Tuesday braced for the worst as they expected the wildfire to hit the Mount Wilson Observatory. But by setting a series of backfires and dropping retardant, firefighters kept the flames from spreading as initially feared.
Today's report from the Incident Information Web site offered encouraging news:
"Yesterday the fire continued to move west toward Mount Wilson. Currently there is a large contingent of fire engines, hand crews, and water tenders in place to protect and defend the valuable assets on top of the mountain. Aircraft were also called in to drop retardant on the west slope of Mt. Wilson to slow the fire's progress. Thanks to the hard work done over the past few days Mount Wilson's defensibility has been greatly improved."
People have anxiously watched images of the encroaching fire on the Mount Wilson Webcam maintained by UCLA. But on Tuesday, the images were lost as the Webcam went down, possibly due to phone line damage from backfires.
Daily progress reports by Mount Wilson Observatory Director Hal McAlister kept on the Observatory's Web site were moved to a backup server after the initial server went down, also the likely victim of backfires. (The observatory's regular Web site is still down.)
One of McAlister's reports from Wednesday was upbeat about the latest progress.
Wednesday, 2 Sep 09, 9:19 am PDT--The situation on the mountain remains stable with very good prospects. No more backfires were set last evening, so only the long defensive backfire on the northern perimeter was lit. Additional backfires on the east and south slopes will be set only if deemed necessary. Heavy man and equipment power remains on the mountain and will stay there until, hopefully, an all clear is given. If and when that happens remains uncertain, of course.
According to McAlister, the incident commander reported that Mount Wilson "is still in good shape." On Tuesday, the Super Scooper dropped 7,500 gallons of fire retardant gell, while firefighters have access to nearly 750,000 gallons of water at the site's water tanks.
The incident commander also reported that communications on the mountain have been difficult due to the intense radio frequency interference coming from the broadcast facilities.
On Tuesday, McAlister noted that there's no structural damage on the mountain, just a lost Internet connection. He praised the people fighting the blaze: "Our facility is in great shape for defensibility and in the hands of a group of enthusiastic, highly experienced, and absolutely devoted fire fighters."
Mount Wilson is home to the famed observatory, which houses two historic telescopes, and several communications towers providing TV, radio, and cell phone signals to the greater LA area.
The wildfire ravaging Northern Los Angeles County is expected to pass across Mount Wilson, home to TV and radio towers and the famed Wilson Observatory.
Mount Wilson Observatory Director Hal McAlister said Monday in an ongoing blog that the U.S. Forest Service informed him that passage of the fire across Mount Wilson was imminent. The USFS also said firefighters would battle the blaze from the air rather than on the ground.
Firefighers have already been pulled from Red Box, a major staging area about five miles from the observatory.
In his blog late Monday, McAlister reported:
Monday, 31 Aug 09, 2:46 pm PDT - I just spoke with Sherry Roman, Public Affairs Officer of the Angeles National Forest. She could give no updates as to the status of the fire in the Mount Wilson vicinity except that the USFS still considers that passage of fire across Mount Wilson is imminent and will be fought aerially rather than with ground personnel. Once the fire is through the area, they can assess the damage by air after the event before they can send in ground personnel. She also confirmed that firefighters have been removed from Red Box.This roller coaster has taken a dip downward.
McAlister's latest blog (which mistakenly lists the day as Monday rather than Tuesday):
Monday, 1 Sep 09, 7:15 am PDT - ...I do not at this point have any news - only what we can all deduce from Towercam and other sources. Towercam scenes continue to show thick smoke on the mountain with a concentration on the right side of the image implying activity on the mountain's north side. It clearly has not reached the mountain and, if advancing towards us, it is only doing so slowly.
McAlister also reported that one of the two power lines to the mountain was knocked out by the fire. But the towercam showing the latest images is still online for now, allowing the Mount Wilson staff to monitor the flames.
The latest news from CBS in Los Angeles reports that the Station fire is still only 5 percent contained, and officials don't expect full containment for another two weeks. At this point, the fire has destroyed 121,000 acres and 53 homes.
Wildfires have run rampant in California over the past week. In addition to the Station fire affecting Mount Wilson, seven other major fires are ablaze in the state, according to the Calfires site, including the 49 fire in Placer County, the Morris Incident in Los Angeles County, the Big Meadow fire in Mariposa County, the Gloria Incident in Monterey County, the Cottonwood fire in Riverside County, the Oak Glen III Fire in San Bernardino County, and the Red Rock Incident in Siskiyou County.
The wildfires have forced the governor's office to declare states of emergency in Placer County, Los Angeles County, Monterey County, and Mariposa County.
If the flames reach Mount Wilson, they could damage the site's communications towers, disrupting TV, radio, and cell phone reception in the area.
Intense wildfires in Southern California are dangerously close to facilities atop Mount Wilson, threatening damage to cell phone and TV broadcast towers, as well as a famed observatory.
The blaze, which started August 26, has burned approximately 20,102 acres and as of Sunday was only 5 percent contained, according to the Web site of the California governor's office. Known as the "Station Fire," as it began about one mile above the Angeles Crest Fire Station, the inferno has spread throughout the San Gabriel Mountains in Northern Los Angeles County.
At an altitude of 5,715 feet, Mount Wilson houses a number of TV, radio, and cell phone transmitters known as the Communications Facilities, all providing service to the Los Angeles area, according to the LA Times. Also threatened by the fire is the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, home to critical astronomy projects and research.
Observatory Director Harold McAlister wrote of the situation in blog posts early Monday:
Monday, 31 Aug 09, 6:10 am PDT - Larry and Dave report that fire fighters are preparing to set more back fires below the broadcast towers, but otherwise things are calm on the mountain for the present.Monday, 31 Aug 09, 5:50 am PDT - Sky and Telescope magazine posted this article in the last hour. Our reports on site are not presently so dire, but the "fog of war" certainly exists in a situation like this. Every preparation is being made for this scenario, and it may indeed yet happen. I remain optimistic for now.
On Friday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Monterey Counties due to the Station fire and other wildfires. Evacuations have been ordered, and two firefighers have already lost their lives.
The latest updates on the Station fire can be found at the state's Calfires site and at the Incident Information System Web site.
One California state senator is trying to crack down on inmates using cell phones while serving time.
California State Senator John Benoit discusses cracking down on cell phones in prison during a press conference.
(Credit: Senator Benoit's staff)Prison inmates in California aren't really permitted to have cell phones. They have to forfeit their devices before being locked up. But that hasn't stopped thousands of phones from being smuggled into prisons each year. In fact, officials say that the number of cell phones confiscated in California prisons has doubled in the last year from 1,400 devices in 2007 to about 2,800 in 2008. And the problem appears to be getting worse this year.
Currently, being in possession of a cell phone or smuggling it in for someone else is only a rules violation. But California State Sen. John Benoit wants to make it a misdemeanor crime with a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine for a prisoner to possess a cell phone in any state prison.
Benoit and representatives from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the new bill he is introducing called SB 434.
Allowing prisoners to access cell phones is a huge problem, because many inmates use them to plan escapes, plot violent crimes both inside and outside of the facility, and to conduct drug deals, officials said.
"Cell phone smuggling into California's prisons is a very serious and growing problem," Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said during the press conference. "Public safety officials in prisons and prosecutors on the outside need additional tools to combat cell phone smuggling to inmates."
Part of the problem seems to stem from prison guards who are often part of the smuggling ring. According to the Sacramento Bee, sworn and civilian correctional employees are suspected of smuggling in more than half of the cell phones that end up in prisons. And it's not difficult to understand why, when some inmates are willing to pay up to $1,000 per phone. One prison employee admitted to the newspaper that he made up to $100,000 in one year smuggling phones into the prison where he worked.
Common sense has prevailed in the Golden State. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed a law banning texting or reading text messages while driving. The law takes effect on January 1.
We say common sense because, well, texting while driving is about as sane as shooting wolves from airplanes is sporting. Nonetheless, it seems that Schwarzenegger, who successfully pretended to be firing and reloading a shotgun while driving a big motorcycle in the second Terminator film (and I'm pretty sure that was him in those shots, not the stuntman who jumped into the Los Angeles River basin), shares an enthusiasm for preventing people from doing very silly things.
The new law may seem a bit redundant to one that took effect in July that banned holding a cell phone while driving. Using headsets and the like is still OK, of course. But we've had a good argument going in our office here since the Governator signed the texting measure: how, exactly, could people have been legally, if foolishly, texting while driving if it's already illegal to hold a cell phone while driving?
Blame it on a loophole big enough for the good governor to drive a Harley through. The initial law proscribed holding that cell phone up to your ear in order to make or take a call. It didn't block setting the phone on the passenger's seat or on the dashboard and pecking away while you drive (this, of course, is where that whole common-sense thing comes into play again).
Declan McCullagh, our in-house legal guru and general ridiculer of flawed legislation, describes the initial cell phone law like this:
It's riddled with loopholes. It doesn't apply to dialing a phone number (often the most distracting part). It doesn't apply to checking your e-mail while driving. It doesn't apply to browsing the Web. It doesn't apply to playing a handheld video game. It doesn't apply to writing a novel. It applies only to the "telephone" features of your handheld gadget. Basically, it's kind of ridiculous.
So there you go. Let's hope that someone bans playing video games while driving before there's a major Spore-related pileup on Highway 101.
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