Bel Air / Brentwood Wildfire of 1961

1961 Bel Air Fire

Location: Bel Air-Brentwood/Santa Monica Mountains/Los Angeles County
Notes: On this morning in 1961 Santa Ana Winds blew embers out of a rubbish pile in Sherman Oaks and into brush where they became an inferno that was then pushed all the way over the Santa Monica Mountain and into Bel Air and Brentwood where it consumed 484 homes, including those of many famous Hollywood actors and actress.

Burt Lancaster and Zsa Zsa Gabor lost their homes to the fire while Fred MacMurray fought flames at his house and saved it although it was damaged and Maureen O'Hara fought the flames at her house and saved it from any damage as did Richard Nixon at a house he was renting at the time on North Bundy Drive (yes, the Bundy Drive of O.J. infamy).

190 other structures were destroyed and 6,090 acres were charred. There were no deaths or major injuries associated with this fire. At least 200 firefighters were injured, many by the tar from the roofs of the homes, but no one was killed and 78% of the homes were saved. Still, the fires were the fifth worst conflagration in the nation's history at the time, burning 16,090 acres (65.1 km2), destroying more than 484 homes and 190 other structures and causing an estimated $30 million in damage.

Bel Air is an affluent residential community in the hills of the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California.[1] Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills it forms the Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles neighborhoods.[2]

Bel Air is situated about 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Los Angeles[3] and includes some of the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. It borders the north side of UCLA along Sunset Boulevard. At the heart of the community sits the Bel Air Country Club and the Hotel Bel-Air. The community was founded in 1923 by Alphonzo E. Bell, Sr.[4]

It is bordered by Brentwood on the west and southwest, Westwood on the south, Beverly Hills Post Office on the east, and Sherman Oaks on the north. Bel Air is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities and corporate executives.[citation needed]