The Bel-Air fire of 1961 hit Hollywood’s celebrity elite.

The Bel-Air fire of 1961 hit Hollywood's celebrity elite, spurred major changes in fire safety rules
Firefighters are not able to save a home on Roscomare Road in 1961. The same area was threatened by fire in 2017. (Los Angeles Times)

The brush fire that burned several homes in Bel-Air on Wednesday echoed back to one of Los Angeles’ most destructive fires, which hit the same neighborhood in 1961.

The Bel-Air fire ravaged Bel-Air and Brentwood over two days, destroying more than 500 homes — including those of some celebrities.

In a headline, Life magazine later called the fire “A Tragedy Trimmed in Mink” in a nod to the upscale location of the fire.

The fire resulted in major changes in local fire safety laws, including brush clearance rules and an eventual city ban on wood shingle roofs. The roofs were highly flammable and allowed the flames to quickly spread through neighborhoods.

Because of heavy lobbying from the roofing industry, it took more than two more decades for Los Angeles to completely ban wood shingle roofs.

Nov. 6, 1961: Advancing flames force former Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat to leave their rented home on Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Before leaving, Nixon hosed down the roof.
Nov. 6, 1961: Advancing flames force former Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat to leave their rented home on Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Before leaving, Nixon hosed down the roof. (Los Angeles Times )

Here are some highlights of the Bel-Air fire of 1961 from the pages of The Times:

• Film stars stood their ground against the encroaching flames, alongside other residents. Maureen O’Hara and Kim Novak risked their lives to douse flames with garden hoses. Fred MacMurray took studio workers with him from the set of “My Three Sons” to help evacuate neighbors and his family from their two-story colonial house in Brentwood. Then MacMurray stayed to help firefighters cut down brush around his Halvern Drive home, confining the fire damage to a portion of his house.

• Burt Lancaster lost his home on Linda Flora Drive, but not his $250,000 art collection, which happened to be on loan to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

•The lush Bel-Air canyons were covered in ash, the hills burned bare. Two chimneys from Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Bellagio Place home stood like eerie sentinels over the house’s charred remains. “My three dark minks, my white mink, my sables, some really very nice little jewels are gone,” Gabor complained to the press in New York, where she had been when the fire hit. She flew home, where, with a shovel in hand and a 10-carat diamond on one finger and pearls around her neck, she sifted through the rubble.

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