No reported deaths, injuries near the that clogged the 2 and 134 freeways
ANYONE driving on and around the 2 and 134 freeways on the afternoon of Sunday, August 25, may have been met with unexpected bumper to bumper congestion due to the brush fire that ignited near the foothills in Eagle Rock.
The fire erupted in the afternoon around 4 p.m. in the 2900 block of West Colorado Boulevard on the northside of the 134 freeway and was moving in the direction of a Glendale neighborhood which prompted the evacuation of 100 homes along East Glenoaks Boulevard from Mount Carmel Drive to Bywood Drive.
Both the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Glendale Fire Department fought the fire from the air, dropping water from helicopters onto the blaze.
According to LAFD, no deaths or injuries were reported, no homes were burned and the evacuation was lifted by 10 p.m. that night. As of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, August 27, the fire has been 100% contained and had scorched through 45 acres of brush.
Battalion Chief Jim Holland of the LAFD said that “this is not a wind driven fire. It’s been topography drive. The wind has been actually in our favor.”
The fire had caused the closure of the 134 Freeway and the 2 Freeway, which prompted severe traffic jams on and around both freeways.
“It was madness. I was coming home after visiting family in Glendora, and then there was this abrupt stop near Pasadena [by the 210 and 134 interchange],” Filipina American Occidental College student Marissa Delgado told the Asian Journal in a phone interview.
In between the 134 and 210 interchange and the 2 and 134 interchange, Delgado said she was stuck there “for about an hour” before having to take the Colorado Boulevard and North Figueroa Street exit. Parts of the 2 and 134 freeways were closed off as the blaze spread towards residential areas.
“What usually takes me 30 minutes to get home in Glendale ended up taking me about three hours, what with the crowded exits and the traffic that had accumulated in the [adjacent] streets, but that’s just life in LA, as anyone here knows,” Delgado continued. “But I’m glad the fire wasn’t as bad as they can get here, but it’s definitely only the beginning of these fires.”
The cause of the fire is currently unknown and under investigation. (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)
