In 2002 I talked to a fire department offical. He basically said that there were two lines of defense in in my old neighborhood. The first was at an east west street (Hillside) that parallel's the mountains behind about 3/8 of a mile North of where I lived and the second was another east west street (Banyan) about 1/4 below. According to the Fire Service Bulletin they have evacuated the homes above the first line of defense.
http://www.incidentcontrol.com/grandprix/index.html
BTW: The Incident web site says that SCE electric power transmission lines are being threatened by the fire. These power lines supply 25% of the power to the LA Basin.