Station fire likely to hit historic Mt. Wilson observatory, fire officials say

The fire burning in Angeles National Forest is approaching the historic solar observatory and television transmission towers atop Mt. Wilson, according to Los Angeles County fire officials.

The communications towers house transmitters for every major television station in Los Angeles.

“We expect it to get there in the next two to four hours,” said county fire Capt. Mark Savage.

Crews were clearing brush around the structures, but fire officials were not sure if they could leave personnel on the mountain to fight the flames because of the danger and limited escape routes. The fire is less than two miles away.

“It’s a serious situation,” said Bob Shindelar, operations branch director of California Incident Management Team 5. “Is the observatory going to make it? We’re doing everything in our power. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it is impacted by fire today or tomorrow.”

-- Joe Mozingo

Photo: A fire spotting plane is seen flying above Mount Wilson communications towers as the Station Fire approaches critical communications point in the Angeles national Forest on August 30, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Comments

[Gary Pomeroy]

Dish network is no longer carrying some local stations broadcasting from Mt. Wilson, like ABC Channel 7.

[db]

Thanks for the info. Now how about telling us what any of it means? what happens if the TV towers are affected? What does "impacted" mean? Can a fire do serious damage? Are there backup towers? What's a "major" TV station?

[Briquet de Lemos]

Why the federal government and state governments do not join efforts and provide men and equipment to combat the wildfires in Los Angeles? The destruction of Mt Wilson observatory and the risks to human lives are just a local concern?

[tarheelchief]

These fires threaten the savings,the lives,and the scientific establishments.
It might be time to rethink our methods of fighting fires.
For example, does Mt. Wilson have enough money to set up a cistern and outdoor sprinkling system to surpress nearby fires.
It seems like the only solution to many fires is a local cistern system connected to the water and sewage systems.
Then outlets could be automated to go off during the earliest phases of the fires.I know the cost of pumping the water would be extremely expensive,but many folks who were given building permits on these lands should have someway of creating their own protection devices.

[sara]

Well, maybe now there will actually be some tv coverage of this fire. Of course, if it hits the transmitters, will it matter?

[Carole Aldrich]

Just heard about the threat to Mt. Wilson and problems with fighting the fire there because of smoke. Why can't they dump fire retardant based on GPS coordinates of the site they want to protect?

[BanjoJones]

my god.

[sondra berry-young]

I am sorry if the fire does take out the transmitters and we loose all these tv channels. However, i think much of the tv programing is terrible. Perhaps they could put cleaner shows on, lets suggestive of immorality and violence which is so dreadful to see on tv.

[Rick]

I'll continue to pray for all those brave firemen and firewomen who are up there in the Angeles National Forest fighting the fire and they are able to protect the observatory.

[jodie]

God forbid! the TV stations might go out! Ragnarok is upon us!

[Virginia Hoge]

This is a very, very scary, potentially tragic situation. Mount Wilson Observatory was founded in 1904 and is known around the world for the huge advances in Astronomy made there.

Among other accomplishments, the 60" stellar telescope on Mount Wilson, designed by George Ritchey, is considered to be the Grandfather of all modern telescope design. Hubble used this telescope to make his famous discovery: the Big Bang Theory.

Read Mount Wilson Observatory Director Hal McAlister's website here for more updates and details:

http://www.mtwilson.edu/fire.php

[mike]

What a disaster if the Mt Wilson observatory is hit, I hope the firefighters can protect it.

[Victor Grippi]

Shame if we lose the observatory.

Hubble's pioneering work began at Mt. Wilson where he proved the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way. Mt. Wilson is where Edwin Hubble first postulated Hubble's Law; where he showed that the observed red shift between galaxies is proportional to their distance away from Earth. This also proved the universe is expanding.

The 100 inch Hooker telescope should be airlifted out if possible. It will be a sad day for astronomy if this instrument is lost to fire.

[mimi barre]

Do you have any news on Singing Springs or Hidden Springs just past the tunnel on Angeles Forest Highway?

[Mike OHara]

*calling DirectTV*

[mimi barre]

Do you have any news on Singing Springs just past the tunnel on Angeles Forest Highway?

[mimi barre]

Do you have any information on Singing Springs just past the tunnel on Angeles Forest Highway?

[steve]

Well at least the Bears won tonight!!

[Adrian]

God bless our firefighters.

[Ian Barnes]

TV stations typically have secondary transmitters. Up here in the bay area, they all broadcast from the Sutro Tower in San Francisco, but the secondary transmitters are all over the place. LA's are probably the same way too. Cable tv wont be affected because they have direct feed from the stations, but if you have a dish, get ready to party like its 1959 because you're going to have to start moving your antenna to point towards each tv stations transmitter.

[John]

Are the helicopters able to fly at nite?
Near the base of Echo Mt. @Lake and Loma Alta, don't see many Helicopters

[Charles]

Haven't had any local English language television (save for a few religious ones that I never watch) since they converted to digital a couple months ago. It's now only Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Armenian, Mandarin, Farsi, Cantonese and I think Russian and others depending on the time of day. Why can't Channels 2-13 get decent digital transmitters to cover the west side? The analog ones worked fine now in their attempt to modernize they broke it. With the possible distruction of the towers, they may have a chance to fix the problem, not that I don't enjoy trying to figure out what they're saying in Mandarin on channel 18.8 but I'm in America, English is my mother language, and I would like to at least have an English option please. It's not like I'm in the SGV, there are a couple other English speakers where I live too and if you suggest subscribing to the folks at Time Warner cable, I'd rather perch myself atop Mt. Wilson.

[Raymond]

Actually, if the transmitters burn down only over-air TV, over-air radio and some cellphone service will be affected. All the local TV stations have satellite uplinks and cable TV connections so they could continue to broadcast to Time Warner Cable customers in the Los Angeles area and also to Dish Network in Meridian, CO and DirecTV in El Segundo, CA.

[Tom]

Ian Barnes, the satellite services don't get their feeds off-air -- they won't be affected if the transmitters are lost.

[bottomFisher]

No more TV transmitters....oh well...I'll just have to 'miss' all the commercials and watch hulu etc free in the internet.......now...that's not so bad...is it?

[John]

Mt. Wilson is like a island in the sky, one narrow roade in and out, thru Red Box stay safe up there.

Still remember Mt. Wilson since win I was a kid, would never forget our family trips to the Observatory. The Tower webcam is down.

[mike]

Hey sondra if all the tv shows are so bad just do us all a favor and put a hammer through the front of your set ok? Thanks.

[Virginia Hoge]

I wonder if it is possible to lift out any of the historic telescopes or objects??

There are so many priceless objects on Mount Wilson, in the Monastery (designed by Myron Hunt), is a 1906 Barnard original star map of the Milky Way,

each Telescope and all their vintage components, (all custom-made)

the Museum has vintage photo prints taken with the telescopes, the list goes on and on and on.

Mount Wilson Observatory is a priceless treasure, we cannot lose this!!

[cass1969]

The tower webcam is not down, it's been refreshing every few minutes as normal. Connection to the website is spotty, but the camera is operating normally. Looks like the fire lines, though way too close, are moving slowly.

[Anthony Rogers]

I am praying they save the Observatory. 3 months ago I was fortunate to spend an entire night there observing thru the 60" telescope. It was awe inspiring looking through the same eyepiece and telescope that Edwin Hubble used. In fact his name plaque is still mounted on his lunch locker. I had some amazing views through the 60" scope and God willing I will get to do this again. Mt Wilson Observatory IS a world class observatory.

[John]

cass1969, your rite, the Towercam is on but spotty refreshing every 2mins.

Please please save Mt. Wilson, a jewel in the scientic world.

[Dave]

Given the nature of the terrain in the southland, you would think California would have better resources and response to wildfires. The Station Fire grew quickly, but not that quickly. It seemed like two days went by before anyone considered it a possibility to turn into a massive fire.

If this fire burns the observatory, it will be a sad moment in LA history.

Thank God the winds are minimal ... otherwise I think half the San Gabriel valley would have burned.

[LV]

I heard the TV news saying you won't lose your signals if you recieve cable or satellite. Which means if you're poor and can only recieve over the air signals you're screwed. All well, guess I'll just read the Times.

[Maria]

Let the freakin fire burn!

I know people love their home and the observatory but I value the life and lives of the firefighters.

The roads are so small and many home sit in dry brush as if "Hoping and waiting for a fire mentality".

Especially the communities who get pissed off if you cut or try to cut trees because they want the "natural" environment .

The two firefighters did not have to die, all those people who choose to live "away from city life" do so at the expense of all firefighters, they should be the ones to tell the families that their father, mother , son or daughter died so that the could live and have the grand illusion of "country living"
It freakin pisses me off that the firefighters died unnecessarily!!!

They should be held for manslaughter for choosing ridiculous areas to live!

[Virginia Hoge]

I wonder if most of Los Angeles is aware of the age and importance of the telescopes on Mount Wilson?

Founded in 1904, the "youngest" vintage telescope on the mountain is the 100" Hooker telescope which saw first light in 1917.

The 60" telescope saw first light in 1908. (1908!)

The first telescope to become operational on Mount Wilson was the Snow solar telescope in 1905.

Mount Wilson Observatory is George Ellery Hale's turn of the Century Masterpiece, and our treasure,

please do not let this treasure be lost!

[calwatch]

LA TV has no auxiliary transmitters. Even though most English speaking people have pay TV services, over 30% of the Spanish speaking population doesn't, and the total number of households solely reliant on over the air TV is almost 900,000 (including this household). If another natural disaster, heaven forbid, were to occur, the only TV available would be from 24 in Riverside.

[Matthew Ota]

Mount Wilson Observatory is worth saving with the utmost urgency. It is a tremendous scientific asset to the astronomy community. The telescopes there are irreplaceable. I hope that they will be able to save the observatory from this terrible fire.

All I can do is try to monitor it from New Hampshire....wher ei now reside.
I am a former Mt Wilson telescope operator.

[thetruthurts]

Gives me a reason to get off this couch and read a book.

[Deborah Baird]

My understanding is that all emergency channels including fire and police are also transmitted from Mount Wilson. Those of you with your snarkey, "Let it burn, TV sucks anyway", attitudes may want to rethink your position! Better yet, when this is all over, take a drive up there some day so you are more informed when you make comments about airlifting the telescope out. You can't just pop a few bolts and fly this amazing world renowned telescope out of there!

[Jeremy]

Almost all of the Los Angeles area radio and TV stations transmit from Mount Wilson.

Some TV stations have a direct connection to the cable systems so if the TV stations were to go off the air they would be able to continue on cable.

Radio, however is a different story. Most of the FM stations in the cluttered Los Angeles FM dial transmit from there. KYSR (98.7) and KAMP (97.1) have backup transmitters/towers along with a few others who share the backups there

But a fire destroying the transmitters on Mount Wilson would be a major disaster for radio and TV. Transmitters and towers are not cheap.

Some are built to withstand things like hurricanes (Most of the New Orleans stations lived thru Hurricaine Katrina) actually 1 transmitter site was operating while underwater

but fires are different. Transmitter fires will knock the stations off the air.

[Richard Iverson]

Three TV transmitters are on Mt. Harvard, 1.7 miles south of Mt. Wilson by dirt road and 300 feet lower in elevation. This includes the major spanish station KCRA.

When people look up toward Mt. Wilson they see Harvard in the foreground and often mistake its apical shape for the distinct summit that Mt. Wilson lacks. Is the fire going toward Mt. Harvard?

It is ironic that the Mt. Wilson Toll Road opened last week after a 4 1/2 year wait for repairs after the 2005 landslides. Even though there is a County Fire station at Henninger flats, 3 miles up the road, the County has not made the section above the elegant main landslide repair passable by vehicles (It's even difficult on a mountain bike.). So now they can't get in or out of their fire station in this emergency except by going up Angeles Crest to Mt. Wilson and coming down 6 miles on the Toll Rd! Their excuse for not expeditiously grooming the lower part of the road that was their responsibility was that they couldn't spare the resources until after "fire season"! Looks like another bureaucratic snafu with some serious potential consequences. I hope no further loss of life or rolling stock results from it!

Richard

[H. Hatcher]

Does anyone know of any information on Vetter Mtn Fire LookOut, near Charleston Flats, and Chilao? I used to work the Look Out Tower. We lost South Hawkins a few years back. We can see Mt Wilson from Vetter Mtn.
Thanks for any info!

[Giggles]

Televison is so bad anyway. You won't miss a thing.

[Alex]

Allowing Mt. Wilson Observatory to burn would be unforgivable, and is a matter of choice.

Phos-chek fire retardent, water dropping helicopters and planes, and thousands of firefighters should have little challenge saving this crown jewel of this mountain range. Fire fighters are paid very, very well to be put into harm's way for exactly these situations.

If they are all pulled out in the name of risk aversion and total safety, we can blame the irreplaceable loss of this scientific institution to cowardice of the fire managers.

[Misty]

I understand about saving history. I pray that the observatory will be spared. I don’t understand the people that are worried about the TV. going out. Are we that selfish? Who cares about TV? What about the men and women putting their lives at risk. It doesn’t matter where people live. If they want to live in "natural" environment that’s fine, who wouldn’t want to be away from the crazy madness of the city, I do believe it should be mandatory that the area should be taken care of, to have the brush kept under control so to speak. The precautions made are life saving. If the brush had been cleared around the observatory and towers would we be in such a panic? Ok so there is the fact that we are hmm lets say broke when it comes to funds that would be needed for the up keep. Well how about all the inmates we have sitting in there little cubes. Why not make them work? Why not use them? We pay for their room and board. I think they should have to work off the funds we have to hand over to support them. Our firefighters along with so many other service men and women take pay cuts and deal with budget restrictions that say to them thank you for putting your life’s on the line for us but your not important enough to pay you more or provide more of what they deserve. So we can’t watch our favorite shows on TV. or watch tontines sports game. Well why don’t those people that make millions take a pay cut and toss it in the pot for those people that truly deserve it, give it to those men and women that do risk their lives to protect our homes and our lives. I promise you that most Celebes would not be up there in the midst if the flames helping out strangers at the level of our firefighters. So in the days that have passed and the long weeks that are still to come remember the men and women that don’t get enough of what they deserve and are still out there doing what they can with the resources that they have. I pray for mercy on the firefighters and on the families that have their lives turned into a nightmare. I pray god will put out the flames and keep all safe.

[P. Adams]

The Mt. Wilson/UCLA towercam is still on as of 2:41:57 but it is smoked covered.

[Virginia Hoge]

I agree with Alex,

its time to use every means possible to save this irreplaceable Observatory!!

[josh]

tijuana cable mas is no longer showing chanels cbs, abc, cw

[Beer]

I've spent the night up on Mt. Wilson while visiting a buddy of mine who was a solar astronomer there, so I feel like I have some kind of connection to the place. It would be extremely sad to see it suffer damage.

As for the rabid squirrels and rattlesnakes that inhabit the mountain, we could do without them.

[Jay]

What happened? Yesterday, the media was reporting that the destruction of Mt. Wilson was imminent, and today they are not saying a peep about it. More made-up media hype for sensationalism purposes.

[Fred R. Eck]

I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley area looking up at Mt.Wilson and visiting the Mt.Wilson Observatory for years. My prayers go out to the protection and preservation of that Historical piece of history preserve it at all costs other than lost lives.

[a European]

it's unbelievable how american people are just worried about loosing some of there 1000 TV stations.... This is what European people refer to when they say "OMG look this is so American...". Very poor.

[Karen]

This was about so much more than TV Stations. Loss of these facilities would affect LAX airport, cell phones, police communications, FM radio signals and only God knows what else. I'm gonna bet that only after it had been destroyed would we have known the full extent of how people's lives would have been forever changed. This near disaster should spur a flurry of backup plans going on.