Local Briefs

Brush Fire Along 10 Freeway

4.09.22: A brush fire along the side of the 10 Freeway near the 17th Street bridge, was visible for miles early Saturday afternoon at about 12 noon PST. Gray smoke from the fire was visible for miles. Traffic backed up behind the fire for about 3 miles, as several units of the Santa Monica Fire Department extinguished the blaze.

The fire was extinguished by 1:20 pm. News helicopters circled the site, which is only about a mile East of the McClure Tunnel. The fire never involved more than a few thousand square feet of brush alongside the freeway.

The fire occurred on a warm beach day, with temperatures near 80 degrees on the beach. Many beachgoers waited on the freeway as fire fighters worked on the fire.

This is breaking news; more complete information will be posted as it becomes available.

Catalina Shaking, No One Is Sure Why

A 'non-earthquake event' triggered a report of a magnitude-4.0 earthquake Friday morning off the coast of Southern California, the USGS said.

The earthquake report issued before 10 a.m. indicated the quake was centered in the the ocean about 18 miles southwest of Avalon on Catalina Island, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. People also reported shaking on the USGS Did You Feel It page.

The USGS later tweeted that the earthquake detection system was triggered by something else.

"ShakeAlert detected a non-earthquake event which triggered our system," the USGS said in a tweet. "Fortunately, no public alerts were sent out. This is a bit of a first time for us because these events happen so rarely. Apologies for any confusion from our previous tweets. The #ShakeAlert team is now making improvements based what we learned from this event.”

Details about what triggered the system were not immediately available. Human activities, like mining and construction blasts, can sometimes create seismic waves large enough to be detected by the USGS national seismic network.

The reported earthquake was later deleted from the USGS map of recent earthquakes and Did You Feel It? page, where people reported light shaking in Long Beach, Irvine and other locations.

Santa Catalina Island, one of the Channel Islands off the California coast, is located southwest of Los Angeles. The towns of Two Harbors and Avalon are located on the island.