La Cañada History: High winds down power lines, topple trees and fuel brush fire

Ten Years Ago

High winds battered the region for 36 straight hours in January 2006, downing power lines, ripping down road signs and toppling trees, including an ancient oak that once stood behind an office building on the southwest corner of Foothill Boulevard at Commonwealth Avenue. Live wires downed by the windstorm were blamed for a brush fire on Angeles Crest Highway that led to a two-hour closure of the thoroughfare and the evacuation of nearby homes. One local fire official said measurements taken during the weather event showed the winds reached 100 miles per hour three times during a 24-hour period.

Twenty Years Ago

During a luncheon held in January 1996 at the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club, the outgoing president of the local chamber of commerce, restaurateur Jim Campbell, passed the gavel to the new president, Rick Mueller, a real estate professional.

Thirty Years Ago

Nearing its designated mission after an eight-year journey of nearly 2 billion miles, NASA’s Voyager 2 beamed back an image of Uranus to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. The spacecraft, which made its closest encounter with Uranus on Jan. 24, 1986, had been designed, constructed and tested at JPL.

Forty Years Ago

More than $3,500 in car tires and batteries, along with $290 in cash were taken by thieves who raided two La Cañada service stations on the same evening. The first station hit was open for business when someone removed all of the new tires from a display rack while the service station attendant was busy with customers. In the other crime, someone waited until after 9 p.m. when a service station was closed, then used a tire iron to break into its main building through the back door, removing batteries and the cash found there.

Fifty Years Ago

La Cañada Camp Fire Girls and their counterparts from around the San Gabriel Valley launched their annual candy sale on Jan. 21, 1966, with a pep rally held in Sexson Auditorium on the Pasadena City College campus. Their sales inventory that season included assorted chocolates and creamy mint sticks.

Sixty Years Ago

Two masked men got away with about $80 in cash after holding up the owner of La Cañada Liquor store. One of the robbers shoved the owner into a walk-in refrigerator, but left the door unlocked. Once he was sure the men had taken off, the victim walked out and called the local sheriff’s station to report the crime.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.