Griffith Park fire surges southeast

Balcony, binos: as of 8 PM, the fire seems to extend from about a hundred yards east of Dante's View behind the Observatory, then dips down by the bird sanctuary and all the way up the ridge opposite the Amphitheater and back down to the Vermont Canyon tennis courts, then jumps a second (or maybe third) ridge and disappears down into the Atwater side. It's hard to say whether or not homes have been threatened, but it's certainly at its lowest points on the southeast side of the hills that it's been all day, and residents of Los Feliz can easily see 50' + flames, sometimes 100', with sudden bursts of flame erupting at formerly beloved points along the Griffith Park trails.

I am staring at a broken but intermittently dense ridge of flame that looks to be way over a mile long and lapping the edges of many City Rec and Park venues. It's horrendous; I haven't seen anything like this in 15 years here. I don't understand why the local TV stations didn't start coverage when the fire started surging again an hour ago. I hope the redwood grove opposite the Greek isn't gone.

UPDATE: It's almost worthless, as far as I can tell, to watch the TV coverage. I keep going inside to check it out and they show all these telescoped shots of the fire behind the Observatory. The fire is nowhere near the Observatory---at its closest it was about 3/8 of a mile away from it. In fact, it is threatening Commonwealth Avenue, about 3/4 mile east of the Observatory.

We could hear the evacuation orders about half an hour ago. It sounded like one even came over the Greek Theater PA system, which lots of people can hear at the right time of night in the right conditions---like these.

UPDATE II: Do you think taking a bottle of Don Julio Tequila and some triple sec with limes down to evacuees at the evac center at Marshall High is a good idea or no? Nah, maybe not---but that's what I would want.