Malibu Fire

MALIBU: The Canyon Fire: Oct. 21, 2007

SUNDAY NIGHT HEADLINE UPDATE

No one hurt or killed.
Five houses burned.
1200 acres burned by 7 p.m.

Two commercial structures lost: the Malibu Presbyterian Church and the Malibu Glass and Mirror business on Winter Canyon Road.

Webster Elementary School was singed—storage and garden facilities on the northern edge were lost, but the school was saved.

Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and School scorched but no serious damage.
Ralph’s Supermarket not damaged— freezers and coolers not affected. But the store is open to firefighters and police only.

CVS Pharmacy not damaged but closed.

Businesses in Malibu Colony Shopping Center not seriously damaged, but numerous spot fires broke out in landscaping and building facades, and on roofs. Some trees in the parking lot blew over before the fire crews arrived.

Malibu Schools will be closed Monday.

Malibu High School evacuation center is open but unused.

PCH closed to all but Malibu residents westbound at Topanga Canyon.

PCH hard closed eastbound at Kanan Dume, but some people are getting through.

Kanan Dume Road open and unimpeded.

Malibu Canyon Road open to utility crews only.

No fire at or near Monte Nido.

The fire lines on Saddle Peak also held.

There are virtually no fire lines to the west or toward Puerco Canyon. There are no fire lines to the east either.

Spot fires are still being put out near Malibu City Hall, Winter Canyon, and Hughes Labs.

Evacuations are reportedly in progress in Topanga Canyon’s southern neighborhoods.

Most vacant land in the Civic Center area burned. Most structures did not.
The County Fire Department will not release the addresses of burned structures. It is believed that two burned on Malibu Road, two burned on Malibu Crest—one of them the Malibu Castle (Castle Kashan). One house may have burned in the Malibu Creek area, but that is not confirmed.

Malibu Tow emerged unburned, except for six crashed vehicles in the impound yard.

Adamson House not touched. Baywatch boats wet the Malibu Pier down.

One thousand hot meals and two thousand sack lunches were distributed tonight.

Crews are being told no relief is on the way, and to grab naps in their trucks if possible. Ten other major incidents in Southern California mean no more resources will be sent to Malibu tonight.

Sheriff’s deputies are guarding two banks and the Malibu Castle “in case anyone gets any ideas,” a sheriff’s commander says.

The Canyon Fire: Sunday Night Update

By Hans Laetz

For Malibu residents, the 2007 Canyon Fire was a familiar crisis, but different. The fire caught Malibu residents largely at home, before dawn on a weekend; meaning roads were open and clear from the beginning.

That meant fire trucks had an open set of roadways as they streamed into Malibu Sunday morning.

The day began for many residents at about 1 a.m., when the predicted Santa Ana winds arrived. Those who ventured outside smelled smoke—but it was from a fire 40 miles north, near Castaic.

Winds at Point Mugu were clocked above 50 miles per hour as the night went on, and eventually reached 108 miles per hour at one mountaintop station in Ventura County.

The fire was sparked at 4:50 a.m. Sunday, when a power pole on Malibu Canyon Road dropped its 14,000-volt lines just northwest of the old Sheriff’s Honor Rancho turnoff. Crews from the first truck to arrive singled out the failed power line as the source of the fire, but an official investigation will follow.

By 7 a.m., fire had spread in two prongs: east down the side of Malibu Canyon as far as the northern edge of Serra Estates, and west over two ridge-tops toward Pepperdine University and Hughes Research Labs.

At 7:20, a firefighter warned this reporter that the power lines he was standing under, watching the fire in Malibu Canyon just north of HRL, were liable to topple. They did, about a half hour later.

At 8:40, the western prong of the fire had topped the ridge above Pepperdine, and was burning down the eastern fringe of the campus. Another tongue of fast-moving fire funneled down a steep arroyo, across Malibu Canyon Road and into Winter Canyon.

That fire quickly engulfed Malibu Presbyterian Church, which was fully in flames less than five minutes after the first flames began licking at it.

A few minutes later, the northern edge of Webster Elementary School was aflame. Fire trucks streaming up Winter Canyon concentrated on the school, the adjacent Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church, and the major electrical substation and switching yard in the canyon.

At 9, the landscaping at Malibu Colony Shopping Center was ablaze.
By midday, the fire had stopped spreading to the east. Serra Retreat was smoldering, but few structures were burned. All of the underbrush north of the one-lane bridge was burned, right up to structures. Los Angeles City firefighters were working with shovels to save houses near the Retreat.

At 2 p.m., the fire had burned to the east behind Serra Estates and over Sweetwater Mesa. Fire trucks saved the office buildings, stores and apartments on the north side of Pacific Coast Highway as the fire edged east behind McDonald’s and PC Greens.

To the north, the fire was raging unchecked through the rugged canyons and backcountry. The eastward spread put the 40 or so houses on the dead-end loop of Carbon Mesa in the fire’s target.

Heavy use of fire helicopters, and slackening winds, put the fire out on its southern march towards the signal at Carbon Canyon Road. North of the mesa, the fire went up a canyon to the northeast, then reversed itself and came up a ridge.

Homes there were saved by firefighters who lit backfires, robbing the fire of its fuel.

By 6 p.m. there were scant pockets of smoke rising from the fire area. Winds were slack as well. But the winds were kicking up again, as they often do right at sunset.

At 6:15 p.m., helicopters had to return to the fire’s origin point, near the Malibu Canyon tunnel. The resurgent wind had whipped embers into a wall of flame in the bramble of brush just above the old Rindge Dam.

Once again, the potential for disaster had shifted to the west.

The fire boss—at 7 p.m.—warns: “Our original contingency was that this fire would burn to the west all the way to Ventura County. Think about all the people and houses there.

“The winds instead blew it to the east today. If they change tonight, it could be just that bad.

Firefighters were told tonight there are 10 major fires in Southern California and no more resources are coming to Malibu.

Malibu Fire Photo Log - Click Here