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Fire burns in hills above Lake Hughes. Undated 5¾x7-inch Associated Press wirephoto, probably the evening of Aug. 26, 1951. Date-stamped on back, Aug. 28, 1951 (date of publication in an unidentified newspaper). Cutline reads:
MOUNTAINS ABLAZE Hill slopes are a mass of fire moments after brush fire roared across ridges near Lake Hughes, Calif., in 8,500-acre blaze in Angeles national forest at the Los Angeles county line [sic]. Burned area like this stretches 10 miles along roadway through a resort area east of U.S. highway 99. (AP wirephoto.) The fire still had three days to go. The Lake Hughes fire of late August 1951 charred 9,300 acres along a 24-mile fire line in the upper San Francisquito Canyon - Lake Hughes - Elizabeth Lake area. A three-man helicopter crew was badly injured when flames rushed up a hillside where a pickup truck was carrying a 150-gallon drum of aviation gasoline. The heat exploded the drum and also took out the helicopter, which was on contract to the U.S. Forest Service from Rick's Helicopters of Compton. The fire was attributed to a careless smoker.
LW2960: 9600 dpi jpeg from original photograph purchased 2017 by Leon Worden.
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