Los Angeles Firefighters Hope To Have Blaze Fully Contained By Thursday Night

Thursday, May 10th 2007, 7:13 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ One-fifth of the city's sprawling Griffith Park was a fire-charred landscape Thursday, but its landmark observatory and zoo remained untouched, and officials hoped to have the still-burning wildfire fully contained by nightfall.

``The tide is turning in our favor,'' Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said late Wednesday as area residents returned to previously evacuated homes.

Cooler nighttime temperatures helped firefighters rein in the 817-acre blaze _ the third this year in the urban tinderbox of the Hollywood Hills. Still, officials cautioned that a sudden change in the weather could stoke remaining embers.

Fighting fires in the hills is especially difficult because of the heavy brush and narrow, twisting roads that weren't designed to accommodate fire engines.

Last month, winds blew a power line down on a hillside, and flying embers damaged or destroyed three homes in neighboring Beverly Hills. In March, authorities said teenage tourists ignited a fire that spread over 200 acres and climbed close to the Hollywood sign before it was extinguished.

``It's only a matter of time until we have a really serious, life-threatening fire on our hands in the hills,'' fire Capt. Carlos Calvillo said.

Griffith Park is so very LA: It's the Hollywood sign and the backdrop for movie after movie after TV show, with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean miles away that even the rich can't buy.

For all they share, the park is nothing like the concrete jungle that surrounds it.

It's an undulating expanse of dry wilderness, crisscrossed by hiking trails and roamed by coyotes. Its valleys muffle the drone of round-the-clock traffic on nearby freeways and some nights feature starlit horseback rides _ real stars, not the ones in the tabloids.

Like the nation's other great urban oases, the more than six-square-mile Griffith Park mixes undeveloped swaths with famous landmarks and spaces where the city's diverse population mingles and relaxes. Its dusty soccer fields host Central American soccer leagues on weekends. Over several peaks are a Greek theater hewn into a hillside and horse stables.

Aside from the booming white letters that mark Hollywood, its most famous landmark is the Griffith Observatory, where James Dean's character in ``Rebel Without a Cause'' learned about the solar system.

Above the observatory, now-charred chaparral scrub dots hillsides between ridgeline clumps of eucalyptus and pine trees and hard-packed, bone dry hiking trails.

The fire began Tuesday near one of the park's three golf courses amid extremely dry, hot conditions. It forced the closure of recently renovated observatory, the Greek Theatre and the Los Angeles Zoo, where most of the facility's 1,200 animals waited out the fire and thick smoke inside holding cells.

``So far, the animals are faring fine,'' said Jason Jacobs, director of marketing and public relations for the zoo.

Authorities were still trying to determine the cause of the fire. They questioned a man who said he had fallen asleep in the park smoking a cigarette and woke up with his shirt on fire. The mayor said the man remained a person of interest, but officials said the fire did not appear to have been intentionally set.

``At this point, there's no indication that it was anything but an accident,'' said Battalion Chief John Miller.