GLENDALE, Calif., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Another fast-moving brush fire erupted in Southern California Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of 30 homes in the Glendale area and sending up a huge cloud of smoke over the San Fernando Valley.
The city of Glendale declared a state of emergency and the Red Cross set up an evacuation center for residents displaced by the fire that had blackened more than 800 acres of dry brush by sunset even though winds in the area were light.
Despite the fire's rapid growth, no homes were reported damaged. More than 300 firefighters from several agencies in the Los Angeles area were digging in to contain the fire protect houses built along the brush-covered Verdugo Mountains.
The out-of-control blaze was the latest in a series of wildfires that have broken out in the Los Angeles area since Labor Day. The largest of the fires, the 19,000-acre Curve Fire, continued burning in the mountains north of Azusa, but was largely contained Monday.
The cause of the Glendale fire remained under investigation.
