LOS ANGELES—Wildfires raging throughout the area continue to threaten the D.H. Burnham & Co.-designed Mt. Wilson Observatory, but firefighters and station personnel were optimistic that improved weather conditions could aid the effort to save the building. The observatory’s director, Hal McAlister, wrote on the station's blog that firefighters, aided by cooler, moister weather yesterday, were able to set backfires and drop 7,500 gallons of fire-retardant gel around the station.

McAlister also quotes U.S. Forest Incident Commander Mike Dietrich, who has been leading firefighting efforts in the area, as saying that the observatory “is still in good shape” as of early this morning. The fire in the Angeles National Forest has so far consumed 219 square miles of land, and thousands of homes remain in danger.

Reports from earlier in the week suggested that the demise of the station, which was built in 1904, was inevitable. A camera sending regular updates from one of the station’s towers, which provide television, radio, and cellular services to the area, showed smoke approaching the station before going offline yesterday afternoon.

The Mt. Wilson Observatory houses the Hooker telescope, which was the largest in the world from 1917 to 1949. At the time of its construction, Daniel Burnham was already known for his 1902 Flatiron Building. He would go on to publish “The Plan of Chicago,” proposing a street system for the city, in 1909.

Read more at the Associated Press and The Times (London). Follow the observatory's blog.