Flames allegedly ignited by two teens sent smoke seeping into the Warner Bros studios and towering high in the sky behind the famous Hollywood sign before losing intensity.
The 160-hectare blaze started on Friday near a corporate housing complex east of Universal City, south of the Warner Bros studios complex in Burbank. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said two teens from Illinois told authorities they caused the fire and were in custody, but he had no other details.
"They've admitted that they started this fire," the mayor said at a news conference. He said they were "old enough to know what they were doing was wrong."
The 16 and 17-year-old boys, who were visiting Los Angeles with their parents, had been staying at the housing complex, the mayor said.
Both boys were later booked for investigation of reckless setting of a fire, said Ron Myers, a fire department spokesman.
They were released to their parents, and the case will be sent to county prosecutors Monday for possible charges, Myers said.
For several hours smoke roiled into the sky behind the famous Hollywood sign that stands on the south face of the hills, but the flames made no move down the south face and by late afternoon the landmark appeared to be well out of any danger.
"If it burns, we would be losing an icon," said Russ Mitchell, a Los Angeles resident.
Some 200 firefighters with five helicopters fought the flames.
Scott Rowe, vice president of corporate communications for Warner Bros Entertainment, said the company was monitoring the situation.
"The studio is fairly filled with smoke at the moment," he said. "It's at our back door. I think a couple of our entrances have been closed at this point and we're operating normally but that could change any minute."
The region had an extremely dry winter with little rainfall, leaving much of the area parched. Humidity also was low, about 10 percent, which makes vegetation burn more easily.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was