MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters in Southern California are expected to benefit from cooler temperatures, calmer winds, and the possibility of rainfall this week as they fight a wind-driven fire in high, mountainous terrain that has forced thousands of people, including celebrities, from their homes in Malibu.
Meteorologists reported that all red flag warnings, which signal severe fire danger and the infamous Santa Ana winds, were lifted on Wednesday due to the weather’s significant improvement. Despite the almost impassable terrain, the circumstances made it possible for firefighters to achieve great success, according to CalFire Assistant Chief Dusty Martin.
The Franklin Fire, which was just 7% contained over 6 square miles (16 square kilometers), still had some 20,000 homes under evacuation orders and advisories as of Wednesday night.
The origin of the fire is unknown. Although workers had only inspected roughly 25% of the impacted area, officials reported that nine structures had been destroyed and at least six others had been damaged, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief Albert Yanagisawa.
The majority of the destruction took place in Malibu, a 10,000-person enclave on the western outskirts of Los Angeles that is well-known for its breathtaking bluffs and Zuma Beach, which is featured in numerous Hollywood productions.
Horse farms, famous people’s beachfront homes, and Pepperdine University were all in flames, forcing students to spend a second night indoors on Tuesday.
This week marks the end of the semester at Pepperdine, and faculty members are deciding how best to finish it. According to university spokesperson Michael Friel, final exams were either canceled or postponed based on the class. According to the university, an initial assessment revealed little to no damage to campus buildings.
Among those damaged is Lonnie Vidaurri’s four-bedroom house in the Malibu Knolls area. A neighbor called Vidaurri to inform him that firefighters would need to enter his home after he and his wife and two young girls had evacuated to a hotel in Santa Monica.
Vidaurri remarked, “It’s pretty torched all around.” He anticipates that the family lost the most of their belongings and that their pet bunnies did not make it through the fire. It could have been worse, but my girls did cry, of course.
Many folks arrived in their jammies and were undoubtedly shocked, according to Mimi Teller, a Red Cross spokesman who worked in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
No one even had a backpack, so the Teller urged everyone to go right away. One woman simply snatched them up without even having a leash for her dog.
Shawn Smith claimed that at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, someone banged on his RV to rouse him up so that he could leave the Malibu RV Park.
“Over the canyon, you could see the fires rolling in,” he claimed. Holy crap, this is real, I thought.
When he arrived on Wednesday, he discovered that the RV park was safe since firefighters had put out the fire before it spread.
“We were fortunate,” he remarked.
Dick 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. And 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. It was propelled bySanta Ana winds, with gusts that reached 40 mph (64 kph). Santa Anas are notorious seasonal winds that blow dry air from the interior toward the coast, pushing back moist ocean breezes.
Alec Gellis 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, tomitigate the impactsof the Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts can damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires.
As of Wednesday afternoon, electricity was still out for roughly 600 Southern California Edison customers, and the majority of those were in Los Angeles County, said utility spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas.
We have been making significant progress, she said.
Outages in Malibu were not included in that figure, Ornelas said. Some 3,300 customers in the Malibu area remained without power, due to safety shutoffs and for firefighter safety. Power was first shut off to most customers in Malibu on Monday evening.
TheWoolsey Firethat 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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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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