LOS ANGELES—As frightening as the recent Skirball fire appeared in pictures, for long-time residents of Bel-Air, it was nothing compared with the horror of 1961.
The more recent fire— which started under the 405 and snaked south down Bel Air Crest past the Getty— destroyed six homes and damaged a dozen more. By comparison, the '61 blaze started as brushfire and fed on since-banned wood shingled roof tiles, shooting right down Bellagio Road into Brentwood and Malibu. That fire took down some 600 homes as it spread, many of them owned by such entertainment industry luminaries as Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, and Some Like It Hot's Joe E. Brown. “My three dark minks, my white mink, my sables…gone,” said a grieving Zsa Zsa Gabor, before returning to the ashen remains of what had been her house, a 10-carat diamond ring gracing her hand as she clutched a shovel.
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