California Wildfires Threaten Mt. Wilson Towers
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California wildfires are threatening Mt. Wilson and if they reach the top, some 25 FM transmitters and 22 TV stations serving the Los Angeles region could be knocked out as well as disrupting cellphone service and some emergency law enforcement communications. Mt. Wilson is home to more than two dozen towers. So far, the fires have not made it to the mountain's peak.
The fires also threaten the historic solar observatory atop the mountain, which houses multimillion-dollar astronomy projects for UCLA, USC and UC Berkeley.
"There's a lot of dollar value in those towers and of course, what they mean to broadcasters in Southern California," Harold McAlister, director of the nonprofit Mt. Wilson Institute, told the Los Angeles Times. "Mt. Wilson Observatory is actually a 40-acre tract of land with 50 to 60 buildings on it."
The Los Angeles police, Los Angeles fire departments or Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department do not use the towers.
