GLENDALE : Firefighters Brush Up on Hillside Skills
Area firefighters clothed from head to toe in fire-retardant garb practiced skills used to battle stubborn brush fires on Thursday on green meadows dotting the steep hillsides of the Verdugo Mountains.
Come summer, these green meadows will dry out when exposed to 100-degree temperatures and become highly flammable, posing a danger to homes on Southland hillsides and to the city below, officials said.
Firefighters from Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and Los Angeles County attended the three-day drill--held at the end of Oakmont View Drive--to perfect methods used to fight fires ignited by dried grass and brush.
The exercises were also designed to hone fire officials’ management skills and to coordinate firefighting activities between city fire departments, said Glendale Battalion Chief Michael Carter.
The drills were a eerie reminder of the brush fire that swept through the hills above Glendale College in the summer of 1990, destroying a multitude of hillside homes.
About 15 engine companies and four camp crews from Los Angeles County participated.
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