Getty Center evacuated as firefighters battle Sepulveda Pass blaze [Updated]

More than 150 firefighters are battling a brush fire that broke out around 1 p.m. in the Sepulveda Pass near Getty Center, which has been evacuated. Mount St. Mary's College in Brentwood was also evacuated.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said the fire has burned more than 10 acres and is moving north. The fire was jamming traffic on the nearby 405 Freeway. Scott said no structures are immediately threatened at this time.

Four water-dropping helicopters are fighting the fire, which was reported at 1200 Getty Center Drive.

This is the same general area where a large brush fire burned through last year, forcing the closure of the 405 Freeway. That fire brought a huge fire department response, and no structures were damaged.

[Updated at 2 p.m.: Ron Hartwig, vice president of communications, says they are evacuating employees and visitors from the Getty Center. Visitors are taking the tram to get their cars, then they are driving up the hill to the South Gate, to keep the main entrance clear. It’s just a precaution, he says. The fire is on the hillside west of the entrance.

At Mount St. Mary's, no classes were in session, but 200 people renting out facilities there are being removed. About 100 staffers were also taken out.]

[Updated at 3 p.m.: The Getty Center is closed for the day. Officials said it could reopen Thursday if the fire is extinguished.]

-- Ruben Vives, Gerrick Kennedy, Suzanne Muchnic

Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[hal9000]

this was not started by lightening and it's not even that hot of a day...the state is broke and someone wants the state even more broke. do not be a fool, we are to experience non stop fires thru october-- it is as predictable as the oil company profits-- dare follow my prediction?

[Valerie from Oregon]

As a visitor of the Getty Center some years back, I know that
it house priceless upon priceless pieces of art. I hope fire crews do all they can to keep this Gem in the Canyon safe!

[A from Ca.]

Hope we don't have another MAJOR expence to endure in LA like a $3 million MJ Memorial Service! We are in so deep I pray we can make it through the real crisis in this State. Prayers for us all.

[di from LA]

The beginning of a very very long fire season--I wonder how much the man-made (partially) drought we're having affects this (saving the smelt in the Sacramento Delta at the cost of our food supply in the San Joaquin valley and the water supply here)?

In response to hal9000, are you actually suggesting some sort of connection between oil company profits and fire season? That makes less than no sense...we always have a bad fire season in L.A.; nothing new--we live in an arid climate and build in natural fire areas.

[Lili]

The Center is probably safe, though as a former employee who wondered, like many others, when the place was being built (long delays, discovery of a fault line through the property, etc.), whether the site had been chosen by genuinely intelligent minds, I can only roll my eyes once again. The notion of Pontormo, Ensor, van Gogh, and other significant artists whom I love at the mercy of the L.A. fires and earthquakes still nauseates me.