Malibu wildfire grows, thousands remain evacuated but firefighters get break from improving weather
MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Officials in Southern California reported significant overnight growth of a wind-driven wildfire that has forced thousands of people, including celebrities like Cher and Dick Van Dyke, from their homes in Malibu, but forecasters said firefighters could get a break Wednesday from improving weather conditions.
With much of the coastal city under evacuation orders and warnings, residents waited anxiously to see whether their properties had been spared by the fire, which erupted late Monday and grew to more than 6 square miles (16 square kilometers). It was just 7% contained.
More than 1,500 firefighters were battling the blaze, with many climbing through steep canyons near lines of flames and others hosing down collapsed roofs of horse stables and charred homes. Aircraft dropped water and flame retardant.
The National Weather Service said the strongest Santa Ana winds, with gusts that reached 40 mph (64 kph), have passed.
Even as the weather was expected to improve, forecasters said gusty winds will continue through Wednesday morning, especially in the mountains, and critical fire conditions remain. Santa Anas are notorious seasonal winds are withering, dry gusts that sweep out of the interior toward the coast, pushing back moist ocean breezes.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony C. Marrone said the blaze, dubbed the Franklin Fire, grew by nearly 40% overnight. At least 7,500 structures, mostly homes, were threatened, with at least 12,600 people under evacuation orders, officials said.
Much of the devastation occurred in Malibu, a community of about 10,000 people on the western edge of Los Angeles known for its stunning bluffs and Zuma Beach, which features in many Hollywood films. Flames burned near horse farms, celebrities’ seaside mansions, and Pepperdine University, where students were forced to shelter in place on campus for a second night Tuesday.
Faculty members are determining how best to complete the semester, which ends at Pepperdine this week. Final exams were postponed or canceled, depending on the class, university spokesperson Michael Friel said. An early analysis showed little to no damage to structures on campus, the university said.
Shawn Smith said he was asleep early Tuesday when someone knocked on his RV to wake him up to evacuate the Malibu RV Park around 3 a.m.
“You could see the fires rolling in, in over the canyon. It was like ‘Holy crap, this is real,’ ” he said.
He returned Wednesday to find that the RV park had been saved — firefighters stopped the flames just before they entered the area. But for hours, Smith said no one knew whether they’d return to rubble.
“We got lucky,” he said.
It's unclear how the blaze started. Marrone said seven structures had been destroyed and nine others had been damaged.
Lonnie Vidaurri’s four-bedroom home in the Malibu Knolls neighborhood is one of the seven destroyed. After evacuating to a hotel in Santa Monica with his wife and two young daughters, a neighbor called to tell Vidaurri that firefighters would need to break into his house.
“It’s pretty torched all around,” said Vidaurri, 53. He expects that the family’s pet bunnies did not survive the fire, and that they lost most of their things. “My girls cried, obviously, but it could have been worse.”
Vidaurri is already looking for a temporary home to rent close to Malibu, where his daughters go to school. He thinks it will be at least six months until they can start to do repairs, and isn’t expecting much help from insurance — he only has a basic fire policy with California’s insurer of last resort. “I don’t even know anybody with insurance in Malibu anymore,” he said.
In his 10 years living here, Vidaurri has experienced four fire evacuations. “I would say you’re kind of numb when you’re in Malibu, you just realize that this is part of the equation.”
Susanna Savee, who manages the Lucky Bee Ranch in Malibu, said they are not located in a mandatory evacuation zone yet but moved their livestock — miniature cows, goats, and donkeys — to Pierce College’s large animal shelter Tuesday evening just in case.
“We wanted to make sure we could get them out before last minute,” Savee said.
Van Dyke, one of many celebrities with homes in Malibu, said in a Facebook post that he and his wife, Arlene Silver, evacuated as the fire swept in. Although the couple and most of their animals evacuated safely, one of their cats, Bobo, escaped as they were leaving. “We’re praying he’ll be OK and that our community in Serra Retreat will survive these terrible fires," he wrote.
Cher evacuated from her Malibu home when ordered and is staying at a hotel, her publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said Tuesday.
The fire erupted shortly before 11 p.m. Monday and swiftly moved south, jumping over the famous Pacific Coast Highway and extending all the way to the ocean, where large homes line the beach and rugged inland canyons are notoriously fire-prone.
Alec Gellis, 31, stayed behind Monday night to save his home in Malibu’s Serra Retreat neighborhood from the flames. He used pumps in the home’s swimming pool to help spray water over the house and surrounding vegetation, turning the lush area “into a rainforest.”
Gellis said there were flames within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of the home on all sides. “The whole canyon was completely lit up.”
Utilities preemptively shut off power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, starting Monday night, to mitigate the impacts of the Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts can damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires. As of Wednesday morning, electricity was still out for about 13,500 Southern California Edison customers, including more than 6,000 in the Malibu area, said utility spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas. She said power was first shut off to most customers in Malibu around 6 or 7 p.m. on Monday.
The Woolsey Fire that roared through the area in 2018, killing three people and destroying 1,600 homes, was sparked by Edison equipment. Asked Wednesday if Edison equipment was involved in the Franklin Fire, Ornelas referred all questions regarding the cause to fire officials.
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This story has been corrected to show that Shawn Smith lives in an RV, not a mobile home.
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Weber reported from Los Angeles and Aoun reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles; Amy Taxin in Orange County, California; Sarah Brumfield in Washington; and Eric Thayer, Damian Dovarganes and Jaimie Ding in Malibu, California, contributed to this report.
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