LOS ANGELES—The California wildfires continue to burn around the Mt. Wilson Observatory for a fifth day, but station personnel report that the D.H. Burnham & Co.-designed structure appears to be safe for now. Hal McAlister, Mt. Wilson’s director, who has been documenting the progress of the fires via its blog, wrote on Wednesday night that his team members “expect to survive this unless the approaching fire obtains far more aggressiveness.”

Firefighters battling the blaze also expressed optimism. “We’re pretty confident,” Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Edward Osorio declared. “Mt. Wilson is going to be OK.” On Monday the battle to save the building, which was built in 1904, had appeared futile, and fire personnel evacuated the area. However, increased humidity and lower temperatures allowed firefighters to return on Tuesday, dropping flame retardant gel and setting backfires to combat the wildfires.

Still, McAlister was cautious in his most recent message, noting that fires remained near the observatory. “[W]e cannot declare the end to any danger until the fire is declared contained by authorities,” he wrote. Such an announcement is not likely to come until at least September 15, the next official day of reporting by InciWeb, a fire-track service run by the National Park Service and other federal agencies charged with forest and fire safety.

The Mt. Wilson Observatory is home to the Hale and Hooker telescopes, considered landmarks in the history of astronomy for the discoveries they facilitated. Daniel Burnham, who headed the firm that designed the building, is best known for his 1902 Flatiron Building in New York and his 1909 “Plan of Chicago,” which proposed the city’s street system.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times. Follow the observatory's blog.