Photo by Josef Bray-Ali ▲

El Sereno -- Firefighters were mopping up tonight in the aftermath of a grass and brush fire that blackened 40 acres and threatened homes near Ascot Hills Park.

The fire appeared to be mostly out by 6 pm but the hills continued to smolder and smoke rose as water-dropping helicopters flew overhead.

"This is a terrain driven fire (no heavy winds) that moved into heavy brush," said LAFD on Twitter. "Firefighters continue to work their way up the terrain into heavy brush and defend the threatened homes."

It appears the fire began this morning in the hills to the west of Eastern Avenue near the El Sereno Recreation Center. By the afternoon, aerial TV footage showed firefighters battling flames near homes near Lynnfield and Kewanee streets. That's northeast of Huntington Drive and Soto Street.

No injuries have been reported and no evacuations were ever ordered. There have been no official reports of structure damage, but CBS2 showed part of a small cottage in flames.

Smoke from the fire, which began at about 11:30 am., was seen for miles around.

No word on what caused the blaze.

Smoke from the El Sereno fire as seen from Huntington Drive near Soto Street. Photo by Josef Bray-Ali ▲

This story was updated 6:18 pm

EL SERENO FIRE UPDATE: Blaze has burned 40 acres, LAFD says; no homes damaged pic.twitter.com/ox0b6q8Fhm — Eric Resendiz (@abc7eric) October 11, 2019

Twitter, that looks like it’s in Ascot Hills & El Sereno. Anyone know? pic.twitter.com/AwlZxEc7YN — george sanchez-tello (@SanchezTello) October 11, 2019