Smoke over rooftops is a scary site in southern California foothills. This smoke is from the fire that broke out about 2 pm today at Chantry Flat north of Arcadia. News reports are saying about 25 acres have burned and they expect containment by this evening.
An LA County firefighting crew set up a staging area at the heliport just west of upper Hastings Ranch and behind the golf course. I hiked up to watch the crew run hoses out to the heliport where two helicopters landed to get filled with water, took off to drop on the fire and then returned minutes later to get refilled.
Update: We heard the helicopters working from about 2 pm right up to nightfall. They ran nonstop trying to put this fire out. But, it is 10 pm now and the fire has spread westward. From our east Pasadena neighborhood, we can now smell the smoke and see flames on the ridge above Sierra Madre.
High today was 94 degrees, far above the average of 76 for this date. Still a little off of the record high which was 100 set in 2004, but the heat has to be making it harder to stop this fire. It is supposed to be hotter tomorrow. I've read where helicopter water drops will resume at daybreak.
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