Firefighters quickly got a handle on a brush fire that prompted mandatory evacuations in Burbank Wednesday.
The fire broke out just before 3 p.m. near the 1000 block of Hamline Place, in the northern part of the city. As firefighters worked to protect homes, flames spread into the Verdugo Mountains.
About 15 fire engines were responding to the three-alarm blaze, Burbank Fire Department Battalion Chief Ron Barone said about 3:30 p.m. Five of those engines were devoted just to protecting homes, he said.
“It is a decent-sized fire, but … we have air support coming in,” Barone said. “We are pretty confident in our abilities; we’re confident in our training. … We’ll be able to keep the people of Burbank safe.”
He later said the fire was at 10 acres and was not expected to grow further. It was at 80 percent containment as of about 5:45 p.m. and a cause had not been identified.
At one point, aerial video from Sky5 showed firefighters spraying water from the deck of a large hillside home, and water-dropping helicopters could be seen working the area.
At one point homes on Viewcrest Drive and Howard Court were placed under a mandatory evacuation order, but residents were eventually able to return home around 9 p.m., according to Burbank police. A number of streets had been restricted to local access but later reopened.
Barone noted that the wet winter has led to an increase in the growth of vegetation that’s fuel for wildfires.
“The precipitation that we get is kind of a blessing and a curse. We need the water, obviously, for all the drought reasons,” Baron said. “But then when we have a heavy rainfall season like we did … we’ll see significant growth, fresh growth, from all the rainfall. Obviously, as that dries out … any fires that we do have become more and more of a problem.”
The L.A. County, L.A. city and Pasadena fire departments also responded.
It was in the low 80s in Burbank Wednesday afternoon. In the evening, winds of 5 to 10 mph with gusts as high as 15 mph were predicted, according to the National Weather Service.
Several other wildfires were burning in Southern California on Wednesday.