On Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 2:55 PM, twenty-one Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, one LAFD Rescue Ambulance, one Arson Unit, three LAFD Helicopters, one LAFD Helitender, one EMS Battalion Captain, one Battalion Chief Officer Command Team, and one Division Chief Officer Command Team, as well as two Handcrews and one Crew Supervisor from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, all under the direction of LAFD Assistant Chief Robert Franco responded to a Major Emergency Brush Fire near 1400 West L Street in the Wilmington/Harbor City area of Los Angeles.
Firefighters arrived quickly at the Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park to discover four acres of grass and brush ablaze, being fanned by strong north winds.
Dozens attending a weekend ‘swap-meet’ marketplace in the adjacent Los Angeles Harbor College parking lot were calmly evacuated without injury, as smoke from the swift-moving fire banked low to the ground.
More than 120 Los Angeles Fire Department personnel battled the stubborn wind-whipped flames on the ground and from the air.
They were soon joined by handcrews from the Los Angeles County Fire Department in coordinating the ground effort with repetitive and precise water drops from a pair of LAFD helicopters that used the adjacent Naval Fuel Depot helispot.
Despite the variety of highly flammable plantlife and inaccessible terrain, including tall dry weeds in expansive marshland, the wind-driven flames were held to 25 acres of vegetation and confined in less than two hours.
No structures were threatened or damaged by the flames, which caused no injury.
The cause of the fire remains undetermined.