Man Films Fire Near Hollywood Sign [Video]

When Josh Webber took his friend up to hike near the Hollywood sign Monday evening and saw flames near a popular scenic overlook, he initially thought that maybe someone was having a barbecue.

Upon a closer a look, he realized that the situation was much more serious.

That's when Webber, a Los Angeles resident, captured dramatic video of the  and later posted it on YouTube.

Webber, who identifies himself on his website as an "upcoming director/producer/actor," was taking a friend from Brooklyn sightseeing in the Hollywood Hills.

“He wanted to hike the Hollywood sign and I said I had the perfect place to hike. As we were driving up, we started to see smoke,” Webber said.

At first, Webber, who was driving, didn’t realize that it was a fire.

“There were so many other people around I was thinking it was from a community barbecue or something,” Webber said.

Once he realized it was a fire, the filmmaker pulled out his iPhone and started recording.

“My first thought was 'Wow, this could be a serious disaster,'” Webber said. “Then I started to record. Lately, I’ve been trying to just record and seeing what I can capture, so I just started filming.”

At one point, Webber got so close to the fire that his phone shut off.

“The fire actually ignited the emergency warning on my phone and it shut everything down and only allowed emergency calls to go through because it was just way too hot where I was standing,” he said. 

Webber said he never felt like he was in danger when he was filming.

“I’m very much a risk-taker and I think if you’re going to shoot it live, you might as well shoot it close, but by no means would I recommend anyone else doing it,” Webber said. “Also at no point did I feel like I was in serious danger like the man who tried to throw dirt on the fire.”  

While Webber was shooting the video, one man rushed up from a nearby park when he saw the smoke and tried to throw dirt on the fire. Another used a blanket trying to stamp out flames.

Los Angeles firefighters arrived a short time after Webber started to film and . It burned less than an acre of brush. No injuries or structures were damaged, authorities said Monday.

Webber said he decided to upload the video to YouTube to show how easily brush fires can happen.

“If the wind was blowing down, it would have been much more severe of a fire,” Webber said. “A lot of people don’t realize how quickly a fire can start and how dangerous it can be, and this is a high tourist area. There should be big sign that says no smoking or something, I think.”

The YouTube footage contains no natural sound. Instead, there's a mellow tune playing throughout the first clip, which is about seven minutes long.

Webber said he left out audio from the scene because he initially gave commentary. He didn’t think it was necessary after uploading.

“I just put a music track over it just so people can focus on the fire,”  he said. 

After Webber uploaded the video on YouTube, a commenter took issue with it, writing that Webber should have tried to prevent the fire rather than filming it. Webber said he isn’t bothered by the comments.

“When I saw that, I was honestly shocked in a lot of ways,” Webber said. “As you can see from the video, there’s truly nothing I could do. Even if I would have dove into it, there’s no way to stop a fire like that, it takes serious professionals.”

Webber said that he heard from one of the witnesses on scene that the cause of the fire was from a cigarette.

“A foreign gentlemen said something about a guy in a yellow T-shirt who threw a cigarette, but that’s all speculation,” Webber said.

Patch checked with the Los Angeles Fire Department for an update on the investigation Wednesday morning.

Matt Spence, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said that the . Spence said fire officials have seen the YouTube video and "just like any and all information the department receives, it was taken into consideration by investigators."

As for those brave citizens who attempted to stamp out the fire, Spence reminded the public that such actions are dangerous and should be left to the professionals.

"While we applaud the brave efforts for the few individuals who did act, we do not encourage that behavior," Spence said.

As for Webber, he said he might incorporate the footage into a film he is shooting this summer.

“You never know, the film I’m planning to shoot in late August is very much improv-based," Webber said. "It’s about the '60s, and things happen, and sometimes I actually film up in Griffith, so you never know."

Stay connected with Hollywood Patch throughout the day on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to our free daily newsletter for email updates.