Aug 19, 2008 9:14 pm US/Pacific
Officials, Residents Meet Over Griffith Park Fires
LOS ANGELES
City and fire officials and Griffith Park rangers will meet with the park's neighbors to discuss a series of suspicious fires that scorched about 50 acres on Saturday.
"We need the public to be our eyes and ears in the park," LaBonge stated. "These fires must be stopped."
The fires are "suspicious," LaBonge said, and that the possibly arson-related fires are happening at the worst possible time of year for the park.
Fires were ignited in five spots along roads Saturday at about 2 p.m., according to firefighters, who put down the fires by 7 p.m.
The first fire broke out south of the Travel Town museum and west of the Los Angeles Zoo. More than 300 firefighters spent the afternoon battling two, three, and then five separate fires that broke out over a two-hour span, fire officials said. One firefighter was injured.
The fire was the third in the 4,210-acre park this summer. A fire that started May 8, 2007, burned more than 800 acres, destroying features such as the bird sanctuary, Dante's View and Captain's Roost.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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