Bel Air Fire

This article is about the 1961 fire. For the 2017 fire in Bel Air, see Skirball Fire.

Bel Air Fire
Date(s)	November 5–8, 1961 (PDT)
Location	Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
Statistics
Burned area	16,900 acres (68 km2) to
Land use	Residential, wildlands
Impacts
Deaths	None reported
Non-fatal injuries	112 (est.)
Structures destroyed	484 homes
Ignition
Cause	brush fire

The Bel Air Fire was a disaster that began as a brush fire on November 5, 1961 in the Bel Air community of Los Angeles. 484 homes were destroyed and 16,900 acres (68 km²) were burned. The fire was fueled by strong Santa Ana winds.

There were multiple celebrities affected by the fire. Actors Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, and Zsa Zsa Gabor, comedian Joe E. Brown, Nobel laureate chemist Willard Libby and composers Lukas Foss and Conrad Salinger lost homes in the fire. Others that fought flames before they evacuated were former Vice President Richard Nixon, actor Robert Taylor, film producer Keith Daniels and orchestra leader Billy Vaughn.

The fire's precise cause was not determined, but it was believed to be accidental.

Aftermath

As a result of the Bel Air Fire, Los Angeles initiated a series of laws and fire safety policies. These included the banning of wood shingle roofs in new construction and one of the most stringent brush clearance policies in the US.

The Los Angeles City Fire Department produced a documentary, "Design For Disaster", about the wildfire, narrated by William Conrad. It called the densely packed homes nestled on hillsides covered in dry brush "a serious problem in fire protection, even under the best of conditions."