View Larger Map The Marek Fire started as a brush fire at approximately 2:03 a.m. on October 12, 2008 in the vicinity of Little Tujunga Canyon Road. The Strong Santa Ana conditions are forecasted to be stronger this evening and early morning with gusts up to 70 mph. Current Red Flag Warning conditions are expected to continue through Wednesday evening.

Mandatory evacuations were established for Lake View Terrace north of the 210 Fwy, Sylmar on the north and east interface, the area east of the Pacoima Wash and the area north of the 210 Fwy from Hillside to the 5 Fwy. Olive View Hospital is under evacuation in place.

38 mobile homes were destroyed in the Valley View Estates this morning. One single family dwelling and garage was destroyed in the Dexter Park area.

A transient citizen in the Sylmar area was found fatally burned in a makeshift dwelling this morning. Management of the Marek Incident transitioned from a Type 3 organization to Type 1 CIIMT-1 at 1800 hours today and will remain under Unified Command Los Angeles City Fire and Los Angeles County Fire.

School Closures: Broadus Elem. / Hubbard Elem / Harding Elem / Mission College / Community Middle Charter / Community charter HS / Triumph Academy Charter

Evacuations are: Lopez canyon all the way to Hubbard St and North of 210 Fwy, Kagel Canyon. Lopez Rd closed to the 210 Fwy.

Evacuations Centers:

Sylmar HS
13050 Borden Ave
Sylmar, CA 91342

San Fernando H.S.
1133 Omelveny St.
San Fernando, Ca

Livestock Evacuation Center:
Hansen dam equestrian center

View Larger Map Los Angeles County. Heavy Brush Fire at Brows Canyon and Oat Mountain Way. Winds gusts are 60 to 70 mph. Hwy 118 is closed at Reseda. CALFIRE I.C. Hodson (Team 6) has been diverted and mobilized to this incident.

The fire began in the area of Senson Blvd. and Tampa Ave. in Porter Ranch. It is now moving in a south-westerly direction towards Lake Manor. Heavy winds are creating erratic fire behavior and all residents in the vicinity are urged to make preparations now in case evacuations should be ordered in their area.

Mandatory evacuations are underway in: Box Canyon, Lake Manor, Lilac Lane to Katherine along Santa Susanna Pass, and Woolsey Canyon. Voluntary evacuations in Bell Canyon.

 School-children from these two areas are being sheltered in place at their schools. Parents have been notified and buses are standing by should the need to evacuate arise.

Evacuation Centers are at Rancho Santa Susanna, 5005 Los Angeles Ave. (standby) and Sinaloa Middle School, 601 Royal Ave. in Simi Valley, and the Goebel Senior Center at 1385 E. Janss Rd. in Thousand Oaks. Shepherd of the Hills Church, 19700 Rinaldi Street, Porter Ranch is also open for evacuees.

Large animals can be evacuated to the Ventura County Fairgrounds, small animals can be taken to the Simi Valley Animal Shelter at 670 W. Los angeles Ave. in Simi Valley.

Evacuations are also underway in the Indian Hills and Twin lakes areas.

**Highway 118 is now open in both directions. 101 north is closed at Valley Circle. Box Canyon Rd., Lilac Lane and Santa Susanna Pass Rd. are closed.

Juliet ( CA-MCP-0026999) 500 acres, 5% contained. Located on Camp Pendleton Marine Base near Pilgrim Creek Estates, the fire is burning in a south/southwest direction toward the City of Oceanside. Fire is in unified command with Camp Pendleton and the City of Oceanside.

A vegetation fire was reported on Angel Island at 2100 hrs October 12, 2008.

The "Angel Fire" on Angel Island State Park is now 400 acres, and is 75% contained. The level of containment can be attributed to the fire reaching the San Francisco Bay waters in many places along the island's shoreline, and from hand-constructed fireline and direct suppression of the fire by firefighters. More than half of the total land area of Angel Island has burned as of 11 am, Monday.

There have been no injuries to firefighting personnel or visitors to the island. Angel Island will remain closed to visitors until further notice. Boaters and bay visitors are asked to be vigilant of firefighting aircraft, fireboats, landing-craft and ferries working to support firefighters in the area.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, though it was likely due to human activity.

Low humidities and predicted winds Monday, October 13, 2008 will make full containment difficult, and some fire activity is expected throughout the day, both on uncontrolled fire-line and from "firing" operations where firefighters will deliberately burn-out unburned fuels or use backfiring techniques to stop the spread of the fire.

The Incident Commander is Deputy Fire Chief Rich Lopez of Marin County Fire Department, and the Operations Section Chief is Battalion Chief Tim Thompson, also of the Marin County Fire Department.

The Angel Fire is located on Angel Island State Park, entirely within Marin County, California. The island is known for its historical buildings, including wood-framed structures dating to the Civil War, a historic immigration center that was the west coast equivalent of Ellis Island, and cold war era military installations.

Forester Kent Julin of the Marin County Fire Department attributed much of the success in protecting the State Park's valuable cultural and historical resources to vegetation management efforts conducted over the past decade, including numerous fuels reduction projects and eucalyptus tree removal. Without the fuel reduction, Julin says, it is likely that the fire intensity would have been much greater, increasing the likelihood that structures would be destroyed.

Forester Julin and State Parks personnel emphasize that fire is a natural part of the landscape on Angel island. Fire is beneficial to most native plant species on the island, and though wildfire has a short term negative impact on wildlife, in the long-term, wildlife benefits from increased forage and a healthier landscape.

Marin County Fire Department, California State Parks, Tiburon Fire Protection District and other local agencies have conducted extensive pre-fire planning and readiness drills to prepare for a large wildland fire on the island. The pre-plans and training were used successfully in 2007 to extinguish a small wildfire, and much more extensively during the Angel Fire of October 12-13, 2008.

Chalk, Los Padres NF. Nine miles north of Gorda, CA. Chaparral. Smoldering.