The fire destroyed 484 homes and burned 6,090 acres (24.6 km2)[1] At least 200 firemen were injured with mostly eye injuries due to the smoke and flying embers.
Actors Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward,[4] Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, and Zsa Zsa Gabor, comedian Joe E. Brown, Nobel laureate chemist Willard Libby, composers Lukas Foss and Conrad Salinger, and writer Aldous Huxley all 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.
[3] 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.