As of writing, six major fires are burning in the Los Angeles area. The flames having already claimed hundreds of properties, caused over $50 billion of damage, forced 130,000 people to evacuate, and resulted in the deaths of five people.
The entertainment industry has been hit particularly hard, with Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton, Eugene Levy, and James Woods (to name just a few) losing their homes to the blaze and major events and premieres being canceled as the state attempts to quell the flames. But there’s one thing that may be in the flames’ path whose value can’t be measured in dollars: the iconic Hollywood sign on Mount Lee which has been a symbol of the city for over a century.
Hoaxers on social media are already claiming the sign is burning, sharing AI-generated videos of the sign and the land around it in flames. These are inaccurate and, as of publication, the sign remains standing. But for how long?
The Hollywood sign
Originally intended to last just 18 months as an advertisement for a real estate development, the sign as originally erected read “Hollywoodland”. Locals quickly warmed to it and the “land” was removed in 1949, becoming a much-photographed landmark that’s part of the fabric of Los Angeles.
In its original form, the sign was made of wood and metal and by the 1970s was becoming an eyesore. A storm in 1978 damaged the first and third “O”s and the whole thing was nearly demolished. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner rallied prominent local residents to save it, resulting in a new steel construction that was unveiled later that year. This remains to this day, with a more recent refurbishment in 2005 seeing the letters receive a fresh coat of gleaming white paint.
Is it going to burn?
As of writing the closest fire to the sign is the “Sunset fire”, which is raging to the west. Between the Sunset fire and the sign are the Hollywood freeway and Lake Hollywood, which at least theoretically function as firebreaks. However, high winds and airborne embers have already seen these fires spread, so it’s certainly possibly the fire will spread to Mount Lee and Griffith Park.
That said, even if the scrubland around the sign is burning, it may yet survive. The sign is made of steel girder beams with a frontage of painted corrugated sheet metal. In the worst-case scenario, the sheet metal may buckle and collapse, but the sign’s steel skeleton should survive intact. This means that even if it’s damaged or partially destroyed it should be able to be repaired fairly quickly.
Other landmarks in the area may suffer considerably more damage, including the Griffith Observatory, the Wisdom Tree, and the Hall of Liberty.
That said, while the sign may be physically able to survive the fires, the psychological and symbolic impact of seeing one of the United States’ most recognizable landmarks wreathed in flames will be immense. Perhaps it’s finally time for the country to process that in the last few months alone we’ve seen multiple alarming natural disasters directly linked to climate change and take rapid and decisive action to cutting fossil fuel emissions.
Oh, wait, Trump’s planning to “drill, baby, drill”, cancel clean energy investments, and promote fossil fuel usage whenever he can? Perhaps his campaign slogan should have been “Burn Hollywood, burn”.
