Los Angeles herald., 1890-06-09
A Number of Them in the
Surrounding Country.
The Damage Nominal in Most
Instances.
Loss to an Orchard and Apiary Near
the Town of RialtO.
A Quantity of Grain Burned on the Chino
Ranch-Two Small Fires in
the City Yesterday.


county, and by many it was supposed
that great deal of the extra heat in the
atmosphere was due to them. On Fri
day it was reported that there were
large grass fires at the Palms and along
the hills skirting the Cahuenga valley,
and to the northwest of the city on Fri
day morning large clouds of smoke an
nounced that the grass was burning
fiercely there. 1t was also reported that
the grass was burning in the vicinity of
Pasadena and the Raymond hotel, and
that there was a large fire in progress at
the Chino ranch. The two most serious
fires that have been reported so far were
those at the Chino ranch and near
Rialto. At the Chino ranch the weeds
caught fire on Wednesday afternoon and
spread with alarming rapidity. Before
anything could be done to stop them
the flames caught field of barley, and
after burning fercely all Wednesday
night about 300 acres of grain belonging
to Richard Gird was burned. On Thurs
day morning the fire had burned as far
as the outskirts of Ontario and the citi-
zens turned out in body to save the
town. They succeeded in subduing the
fire during the course of the morning.
Altogether about / 300 acres were COW
cred by the fire. Except the 800 acres
of grain the other land was covered with
grass and weeds and there was no par
ticular damage.
The fire at Rialto was still in progress
yesterday afternoon. 1t started some
time on Friday, catching presumably
from spark thrown out by passing
locomotive. 1t spread slowly over the
ground, burning the dry grass and grad
ually working its way north until it
reached some of the young orange or
chards recently set out. Here it created
considerable havoc, the grass in some
places under the trees being of suffi-
clent thickness to give it a good
headway. 1t caught in the
singed $1,000 trees SO badly that it is
probable that none of them will live.
These trees were burned on SATURDAY.
evening, and about the same time the
fire spread to the Morford, apiary de-
stroying 800 stands of honey. An ave-
nue. with shade trees Oil both sides ex-
tends from the railroad station up to the
foot of the mountains, passing through
very fertile country. There was guam
tity of long grass on each side of the road
underneath the shade trees. This
caught fire and burned along a distance
of several miles, and it is estimated that
at least 500 of the shade trees were killed
by the flames. Yesterday afternoon
when representative of the HERALD
visited the place the fire was still burn
ing briskly, gradually eating its way to
the mountains. In every direction the
tracks of the flames could be seen, an d
the atmosphere was decidedly sultry.
1t was reported that other damage had
been done but these reports could not
be verified. A considerable quantity of
the land of the Semi-Tropic Land Com
pany was burned over. but there was
nothing planted that could be damaged.
Rialto has been thriving of late and
will in the near future be a great orange
raising section. During the past year
over $4,000 young trees have been
planted covering in the neighborhood of
1,300 acres. The residents report that
during the planting season it was i'm
possible to obtain help enough and that
they were considerably delayed on this
account.
The fire towards Pasadena was rather
lively but no damage was done, except
to one COW that was staked out where
she could not be reached to be released
when the flames reached her. The fire
started in the dry grass just south of
Garvanza and burned over number of
hills, leaving them black and dry. This
tire lasted the better part of two days
before it burned itself out
The fire which started Friday in the
hills to the north and west of the city is
still burning Yesterday afternoon it
had reached the Los Felis
ranch and the sides of the
mountains fronting the river were
covered with burning grass and trees.
There are a number of trees of various
kinds on the sides of the mountains
fronting the river, and from appearances
these were furnishing material for the
flames yesterday afternoon. Although
there are a number of houses located on
the lowlands on the river bank and in
some of the ravines in the neigh hborhood,
none OF them were reported as being in
any danger. Last night the flames
were still to be seen from East Los An
geles.
The fire at the Palms extended over
considerable territory, but no damage
to crops or buildings was reported. it
started near the railroad track, and
burned over several hundred acres of
wild mustard which created consider
able smoke, and gave rise to rumors that
the fire was quite serious. The smoke
hoated over the city on Friday and Sat
urday, and in the western part of the
city was quite nuisance during the
warm weather.
The residents on the Solano tract had
a fight for their homes on Friday and Sat
urday. Tine grass on the hills caught fire,
and gradually the flames crept nearer to
the houses, until it began to appear as if
some OF them would be caught. The
residents turned out and fought the fire
nearly all of Friday night. The grass
covering all the hills of Elysian park
except the last one toward the Buena
Vista-street bridge was burned, and
the spectacle of the backened hills is
not very pleasant to those entering the
city for the first time. 1t is believed
that number OF eucalyptus trees set
out recently in the park have been de-
stroyed.
Between twenty and thirty small
grass fires in various parts of the county
have been reported, but the damage in
all cases was nominal
At ten minutes past 8 O'Clock last
night an alarm was rung in from box.71