Red Car Canyon: Dead Eucalyptus Still Looming Large

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 12, 2015.  You would think for liability reasons alone, the Red Car Property owner would cut down the dead Eucalyptus in Red Car Canyon.  We reported it to the owner's rep over a year ago.  The adjacent property owner reported it repeatedly to not only the owner's rep, but also CD13 & LAFD Brush Clearance Unit last year.  

Since all 5 lots of the property were Red Tagged by the LAFD earlier this month, we hope the Fire Dept will take note that this dead tree is still in the canyon.  It was not cut down after the LAFD Red Tagged the lots in 2014, even though we had a fire on the Lake View slope, just a few hundred feet away.

Photo: Diane Edwardson: May 27, 2014.  We documented the now dead Eucalyptus on the blog last year on more than one occasion. 

In 1980, a brush fire started in the canyon and burned up both sides of the canyon.  Three homes on Corralitas were destroyed; two damaged and rebuilt.  A water dropping helicopter stopped the fire before it caught a sixth house on fire on the opposite side of the hill, atop Corralitas, just as the Italian Cypress trees in front of the house were just catching fire.

The 1991 Oakland Hills Fire forced Los Angeles to re-examine the way brush clearance is handled in Hillside Areas. In the first hour of the Oakland Hills Fire, more than 790 homes were destroyed.  

By the early 2000s the Eastside Hillside Areas were added to the Very High Fire Hazard Safety Zone, but the higher standard of brush clearance has been spottily enforced in our area.  Now the vacant lots and the built lots are all under the jurisdiction of the LAFD Brush Unit. 

Report hillside brush hazards to LAFDBrush@lacity.org

We'll be looking at the dead (primarily Eucalyptus) trees around the neighborhood this week. Click here for all our dead tree posts.