Glendale Fire History: the Day Both Ranges Burned

A snapped power line, hurricane-force wind, and a city between two fires

Early on March 16, 1964, Santa Ana winds recorded above 70 mph, with gusts approaching 90, snapped high-voltage lines in the hills north of the Chevy Chase golf course. The small fire that started there did not stay small. By the time the wind was done with it, fire had burned roughly 2,100 acres through the Chevy Chase area, while a second, larger fire driven by the same windstorm burned thousands of acres across the hills north of Glendale.

The accounts from that day are a catalog of ember behavior. A fire truck in Whiting Woods was partially lifted off the ground by a gust. Two converted WWII bombers had to abort retardant drops. A helicopter directing crews crash-landed on the Chevy Chase golf course, which was serving as the fire command post. And crucially for today's rules: homes ignited far from the fire front, including a residence at Ridgeway and Meadows lit by embers blown hundreds of yards off the hillside.

When it was over, homes had been destroyed in Whiting Woods, Scholl (Glenoaks) Canyon, and Chevy Chase Canyon, with more lost in neighboring Eagle Rock. Governor Pat Brown declared Glendale a disaster area. Residents at the time credited the Glendale Fire Department, reinforced by crews from surrounding cities, with holding the losses to what they were.

2017: La Tuna reminds the Verdugo side

Fifty-three years later, the La Tuna Fire burned for nine days in the Verdugo Mountains in September 2017, at the time one of the largest fires in the City of Los Angeles's history by acreage. On Glendale's side of the range, roughly 250 Glendale homes went under mandatory evacuation orders. Glendale was fortunate: the fire's main push went southwest, and most structure losses fell outside the city. The evacuation maps, though, traced the same foothill streets that burned in 1964.

Why this history is written into Zone 0

Both of Glendale's major fire episodes tell one story: the fire on the hillside is not what takes the house. The ember shower ahead of it is. That is why the new law regulates the first 5 feet around the structure, the only ground an ember is guaranteed to land on.

The history is close at hand if you want it. The Chevy Chase Estates Association maintains a detailed archive of the canyon's fires, the Special Collections room at the Glendale Central Library holds the city's historical record, and The Glendale Historical Society documents the neighborhoods that rebuilt. Walk the trails at Deukmejian Wilderness Park or above Brand Park and you can still read the fire-shaped chaparral on both ranges.

Fire history questions