Where is the Hollywood sign located and what is it made of? All about the iconic structure amid raging Hollywood Hills fire 

Claims of the Hollywood sign in California being on fire amid the ongoing brush fire in the Hollywood Hills west of Runyon Canyon have spread rapidly across X. This comes after a state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles city on January 8. As news of death, injuries, and destruction makes headlines online, it is worth noting that the iconic structure itself remains unscathed.

X user @Antunes1 was one among the many who took to the social networking site on January 9 to tweet, “BREAKING: Hollywood sign is on Fire.” The netizen also attached an image of the structure being surrounded by blazing flames.

As news of the same spread across the internet, several other netizens took to the internet to clarify that the claims were not true. Popular X page @rawsalerts clarified that the aforementioned image is “AI-generated.”

Furthermore, they attached a live picture of the structure on January 9 showing that the sign was in its original form and not destroyed.

Several others also took to X to clarify that the sign was in proper condition and was not destroyed by the fires.

For those uninitiated, the Hollywood sign that towers over the city of Los Angeles is located on Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills area. The iconic Tinseltown structure is in the Santa Monica Mountains area and overlooks the Hollywood district of Los Angeles.

The best places to see the sign are from the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood & Highland.

The Hollywood sign is 450 feet long and weighs approximately 480,000 pounds. It was originally made of corrugated steel and has been mounted on a metal frame. However, the original signboard was solely made of wood and steel in 1923.

It was initially held together with the help of pipes, wires, telephone poles, and scaffolding.

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The Hollywood sign originally read “Hollywoodland”

Back in 1923, when it was first constructed, the sign read “Hollywoodland” to promote the affluent housing in the area and upcoming development in the Hollywood Hills. It was built by former Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler in an 18-month-long project.

The signage went on to become a historic structure in 1932 after actress Peg Entwistle climbed on top of the sign’s ‘H’ letter and fatally jumped. She was then called the Hollywood Sign Girl.

As the Great Depression hit the States, the owners of the signboard M.H. Sherman Company donated it to the City of Los Angeles in December 1944.

Due to the structure being rundown and almost broken apart, the City attempted to destroy it altogether; however, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce proposed to restore it to mint condition.

During that time, “Hollywoodland” was changed to “Hollywood.” In August 1978, Playboy’s Hugh Hefner raised money to reconstruct the sign, with it eventually becoming a landmark.

Meanwhile, ABC News reported that tens of thousands of people were evacuated from the nearly 16,000 acres burning Los Angeles locality.

At the time of writing this article, the Sunset Fire had broken out in the Hollywood Hills, with the Los Angeles Fire Department announcing that firefighters are in the process of de-escalating the situation.

The news outlet reported that at least five people were killed in the fire, with several others injured.

The fires that have taken over include the Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, Hurst Fire, Lidia Fire, and the Woodley Fire.

President Joe Biden has since canceled his trip to Italy to focus on the LA fires. He was scheduled to make his way to Rome to meet with the Pope and Italian leaders, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.