PHOTOS

THE FIRE

Saturday, Memorial Day Weekend May 24, 1997

Mentor Huebner…and his wife Louise...after their home had been destroyed by a raging canyon brush fire...during an 'off' fire season...on a lovely, cool, Spring day in May...when the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy's Elyria Canyon Wilderness Park, that had been carelessly plunked down three years earlier, in the middle of a high level, prime, residential neighborhood, a mere twenty minutes from the downtown Los Angeles City Hall, and left to fend for itself, had suddenly and mysteriously ignited, causing the canyon beneath the couple to burst into flames...500 feet wide and 100 feet high, requiring five helicopters out of the City's six, along with the LA Strike Teams (who had been summoned in an attempt to save the 'other' homes) ... were told by the LAFD, " It was the worst fire in the Northeast in forty years. That fire was 'hot! Very hot! ". The jury agreed. Guilty verdicts were handed out to all the defendants in the landmark million dollar case.

THE FIREMAN Mentor Jr. Mentor Huebner (C) 1960 Oil on Masonite 20 X 32

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THE RUINS OF POMPEII "The Worst Fire in over Forty Years" - LAPD Mentor Huebner, Jr. (c) 1997

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