Documentary Photography of Griffith Park Fire in May of 2007

These are photographs of the Griffith Park fire that happened on May 10, 2007. I was at my house in Glassell Park on the top of the hill when a friend came over and told me a fire had started in Griffith Park. There was a small fire visible, and I grabbed my small Canon S3, my only digital camera at the time. While we were standing outside staring at what was at first an isolated smaller fire, we saw a palm tree explode. I had never seen anything really like it. Like a fireball launched from a catapult, it arced high into the air and flew quite far, exploding again on impact into a shower of sparks. Very quickly, the hillside erupted in the large fire that I captured here.

Documentary Photography of Griffith Park Fire in May of 2007

We stood there for several hours as the sky darkened and watched the fire grow larger and larger. I had seen other fires in Griffith Park or within the hills of the city, but the sheer size of this fire in the middle of the city was a stark sight. Los Angeles Magazine has an interesting article looking at the fire that is worth reading.