Wildfire Approaches Los Angeles, National Forest

Los Angeles woke up to the smell of fire this morning, and the city has become increasingly clouded with smoke throughout the day as the Angeles National Forest, only about an hour's drive from downtown, continues to burn, as reported by the LA Times. Investigators say they think a person started the blaze yesterday, though they haven't been able to confirm if it was intentional. A boy scout troop had to be flown out of the area when the fire broke out near the Morris Dam.

To the north and the northeast of the city, the Angeles National Forest is a thousand square miles of pines, firs, and thickets of chaparral that's a popular destination for hikers and mountain bikers. According to reports, the Morris fire is overtaking an area that had not burned for at least 25 years.

Although the relentlessly arid conditions in the region don't help, the weather forecast doesn't call for any strong Santa Ana winds that notoriously stoke SoCal wildfires.

Learn what to do if you're caught in a megafire in our How to Survive (Almost) Anything story.

Photograph by Kodiak Greenwood