• The Publisher’s Notebook •

The Malibu Contract: Fighting Wildfires

BY ANNE SOBLE

It is no solace to those who lost their homes in the Corral Fire to hear that the county fire department regards it as one of the more successful firefights in Malibu’s history because “firefighters were able to save 98 percent of the threatened 2314 structures in those areas.” The fire claimed 4582 acres, and 55 homes were lost. Although one can quibble with some of the assertions in the 17-page report on the Corral Fire released by Fire Chief Freeman last week, especially that 10,000 Malibuites were evacuated (to where on a closed Pacific Coast Highway?), we must take ourselves firmly in hand and agree that the department did an extraordinary job of containment once the wind cooperated. At no time can any fire be held in check when hurricane-force winds blow. Part of an unwritten contract that we all sign when we move to Malibu is that we are at nature’s mercy. Whatever the technology, or the resources, we have no control. When I first arrived in Malibu, I was initiated into the rite of the wildfire story. I was told about the Newton-Hume-Sherwood fires of December 1956 in the Malibu hills that took more than five times the toll of Corral—35,000 acres and 250 structures were destroyed, including several of the buildings on the ranch I had purchased to be able to raise livestock. I heard about the Liberty Canyon Fire, one of three fires in December 1958, set by arsonists in the Malibu hills where 25,000 acres and 42 structures were destroyed. Then there were the Wright and Clampitt fires, Newhall to the Pacific Ocean over two mountain ranges, in September 1970. They claimed 135,000 acres, and 226 structures were destroyed (Chatsworth through the Malibu hills).
But those were just stories. I got my first real taste and smell of wilderness gone berserk in the Kanan Fire of October 1978, when 25,000 acres and 230 structures were destroyed. That fire raged from the Malibu hills to the ocean at Broad Beach in two-plus hours, and is an example of what the Corral Fire could have become but for the tremendous preparation of the firefighting forces on hand last Nov. 24. Next came the Dayton Fire in October 1982, going from Chatsworth to the Pacific, but this time at the Malibu Colony—42,000 acres and 85 homes were destroyed. Then there was the great loss of homes in the Old Topanga Fire of October 1993, with 16,500 acres and 385 homes burned on both sides of Malibu Canyon from Topanga to the ocean. If a wildfire starts and does not cause devastation in its first two to three hours, that is purely the result of chance. Fire crews need time to assess burn conditions and get equipment where it belongs. If the winds are raging out of control, crews cannot be dispatched on what could be suicide missions. Chief Freeman notes in the April 17 report that the Corral Fire burned in an area that has been tragic for firefighters twice in the last 50 years. In 1958 and 1996 firefighters were trapped and burned. No structure is worth the loss of lives—firefighters or civilians. In 1993, when flames licked at my barns and corrals, structures around the bend that were located in a box canyon burned out completely. The fire crews that were bivouacked on my ranch, successfully setting backfires, said there was no way to go into that box canyon and come out alive. I then asked myself what if there were circumstances when that might be said about my home? It would not be easy to accept, but the Malibu contract dictates that I would have to concur.