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Total Containment of Corral Fire Expected Monday Afternoon

• Arson Investigators Urge Anyone with Information about How Blaze May Have Started to Call 310-456-6652 •

By Hans Laetz

At least 53 houses were lost, but many hundreds were saved, in the Thanksgiving weekend fire that showed how well careful fire planning could work, while demonstrating how one ignored factor could unravel everything.

Corral Canyon residents say their pleas for increased ranger patrols on State Parks land at the north end of Corral Canyon Road have been rebuffed for months. Arson investigators say the fire was caused by human activity and started in an area where people were partying under a full moon late Friday night.

Corral residents peppered officials with questions about why their pleas for increased fire patrols at isolated canyon party locations had gone unheeded. One angry person posed that question at a Saturday news conference. The commander of the Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, Capt. Tom Martin, said, “That particular area is State Parks property, we do get calls from time to time and we do respond but that is primarily their responsibility.”

Residents said they have been told only one state ranger is on duty at night to patrol the broad swath of mountain parkland from upper Corral Canyon west to campgrounds near Point Mugu, a drive that can take an hour.

As of Monday morning, the fire was reported 90 percent contained, and had burned 4902 acres. Total containment is expected by Monday afternoon. Demobilization was in full swing, with crews pulling out from the city-on-wheels at the Malibu Civic Center.

On Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped over crunched tiles and walked through burned doorways to comfort several families that lost everything. “We lost 53 homes—that's the latest update that I've gotten—which is very sad,” the governor said. "We want to get those people back on their feet as soon as possible."

This time, the photo op was deserved, as it was the governor’s order to move hundreds of firefighters south of the Tehachapis that proved to be what saved Malibu. Trucks from Lake Tahoe and the Bay Area were among the first-in units last weekend in Escondido Canyon—on the scene within two hours instead of two days.
Dozens of Governor’s Office of Emergency Services fire trucks had been pre-positioned in Camarillo, and screamed into Malibu within two hours of the fire’s start. That made the difference, said L.A. County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman.

“We had the trucks we needed, here at our disposal,” he said. Freeman said that, while more than four-dozen houses were lost, as many as 250 would have burned if reinforcements were not nearby.

“We lost dozens of homes, but it could have been up in the hundreds had we not had pre-positioned resources at the ready,” affirmed Cal Fire chief Tom Barry.

But 53 houses, maybe as many as 58 by some unofficial counts, were lost, as well as 27 sheds, barns or garages. Another 34 homes and 11 outbuildings were damaged, fire officials said.

Southern California Edison crews started to clear Corral Canyon and Latigo Canyon roads of about four miles of tangled power lines and charred, collapsed poles within 12 hours of their burning. By Sunday morning, circuits were restored to all Malibu customers except 55 houses, by Edison count, where meters didn’t exist anymore.

Verizon crews were working to restore lines up the canyons, but did not suffer citywide interruptions. That, again, was not the case with Charter Communications, which again blacked out nearly all cable TV, Internet and telephone service in its entire western L.A. county service area, from Malibu through Topanga to Calabasas, Agoura Hills and other areas miles from the fire area.

Company officials said they lost 12,000 feet of fiber line to their distribution center, just over a mile from the fire’s point of origination. The company said Sunday it had repair crews on standby to restring fiber up the canyon just as soon as Edison crews had finished their work.

Charter released statements Sunday and again Monday noting that a second fiber path into Malibu from its computer center in Monterey Park was only a few weeks from being completed. But with all utility lines down in Corral Canyon, it appears that Charter’s citywide cable, Internet and phone service would have gone down whether the new line was completed or not.

City Manager Jim Thorsen said Malibu City Hall has its own fiber link independent of Charter, and it never failed. The city sent out emergency alerts, but a number of Malibu residents report there were problems with the recorded messages.

Some Corral Canyon residents were complaining that the city had hindered fire response by choosing the middle of fire season to set up a one-lane detour to handle both uphill and downhill traffic on Corral Canyon Road at Solstice Creek, where a bridge is being rebuilt to allow steelhead trout to migrate upstream.

“I am not aware of any reports of any delays on that road,” said Chief Freeman Saturday, and other fire officials agreed. Thorsen said a gate on a bypass route, through the Malibu Beach campground, was opened.

Malibu Wildfire Redux: Saturday’s Corral Fire Claims Nearly 50 Homes

• Preliminary Assessment Is that Destructive Blaze Was Human in Origin•

By Hans Laetz

Forty-nine houses burned, but no one was killed or seriously injured, when a more than 4500-acre wildfire, possibly ignited by boisterous outdoor partiers at the top of Corral Canyon, came racing out of the Santa Monica Mountains early Saturday morning.

Residents describe an awful scene in the predawn darkness. Flashing lights and wailing sirens from sheriff’s vehicles, and pounding fists from deputies and neighbors, awakened several hundred people on streets off Corral Canyon Road, a dead-end ridgetop road, three miles inland from and several hundred feet above the ocean.

The fire raced southwest from its point of origin at the road’s northern dead-end, into several groups of houses. The 150 or so homes clustered in three hillside tracts in Malibu Bowl and El Nido had slim chances: only a few fire trucks could make it up Corral Canyon in the 45 minutes or so it took the flames to arrive.

By sunrise, the cluster of houses perched along the upper reaches of Corral Canyon had suffered a terrible toll – at least 32 houses in Malibu Bowl destroyed by 7 a.m. Streets such as Lookout Road, Lockwood Road, Ingleside Way and Corral Canyon Road were hit hard.

Down at the coast, most Malibu residents awoke Saturday to the all-too familiar drill of looking at water-dropping helicopters on television, trying to triangulate how far away the danger was from escape routes, and making plans to help themselves or their friends escape from fire.
Like a month ago, this weekend's brushfire caught the city sleeping, on a weekend morning. Many people along the 27-mile coastline had no idea of the peril until they turned on the television, or stepped outside to retrieve the morning paper, only to see the sky filled with a golden-orange glow as the rising sun caught the plume of acrid smoke.

Charter Communications, the city’s primary cable TV company, lost 5000 feet of fiber cable early in the morning, again blacking out much of the city’s TV service and some Internet and telephone connections.

As the sun rose, a wall of fire headed southwest toward the two clusters of hillside homes just to the west, along Latigo Canyon Road. An amazing work of fire helicopter aviation saved dozens of houses clustered near Ocean View Drive. A caterpillar line of fire trucks arriving from Los Angeles had crept up steep, narrow Latigo Canyon Road, one mile to the west of the burning Malibu Bowl.

Fire trucks were parked in most of the driveways of the 100 or so homes along Latigo Canyon Road, the homes draped across a steep ridgetop about three miles north of Pacific Coast Highway.

Fire burned up to and around the homes. Landscaping, playground sets and cars burned. But the first wave of fire burned right up to the cluster of houses near Ocean View Drive at Latigo Canyon Road, and was stopped on a house-by-house basis. Of the 15 houses facing the fire front, not one was lost.

Newell Road, where six Glendale firefighters were burned 11 years ago, was singed but spared. Six firefighters suffered injuries described as minor today.

But on the ridge further downhill, where Latigo Canyon Road makes a switchback, flames raced through several houses and over the ridge, crossing the road and racing down into Escondido Canyon. Houses on the ridge near the active landslide on Latigo Canyon Road, a familiar landmark for motorists, were particularly hard hit.

In the canyon bottom along Via Escondido, the front of the fire was largely stopped by reinforcements, including Cal Fire trucks arriving from a state command post in Camarillo. But burning embers rushed a half-mile ahead of the fire front, claiming at least three houses within a block or two of Geoffrey’s Restaurant.

As the day went on, it would turn out those were the last houses to be lost to flames.
The fire jumped PCH at Latigo Shores, singing the landscaping between the road and condominiums, but sparing the structures. By midmorning, the heavily protected BeauRivage Restaurant and nearby Union 76 station were surrounding by burning hills.

Although the first wave of fire spared the homes along Latigo, by 10 a.m., a new wave of fire had swung around to the north of that neighborhood, and was threatening to cross the road on the subdivision's northern side.

Flames topped 100 feet, measured against a three-story house across the street, as the front crested the ridge. Fire helicopters dropped water on either side of the main advance, and firefighters in the driveways below took up defensive positions.

At the very last moment, fire crews on the road lit backfires, and the hundred-foot wall of orange and black sucked the small backfires up the hill, robbing the advancing curtain of fire of its fuel.

Despite predictions of doom, firefighters said their trucks had no trouble passing the one-lane bridge over Solstice Creek.

By 11 a.m., the 200 houses still standing on Latigo Canyon Road were again saved.

Fire chief P. Michael Freeman said no houses were burned after the initial fire advance ended at about 7 a.m. By sunset, the familiar portable city of firefighters had been set up on Civic Center Way, the satellite trucks were deployed, and Malibu was again settling down for a night under siege.

And for the third time this year, the county fire chief and municipal authorities proclaimed that Malibu dodged a bullet. This time the cost was steep: 32 houses lost in Malibu Bowl, three houses lost in El Nido, five in Escondido Canyon, six along Latigo Canyon Road and several other houses in more remote areas.

A complete list of damaged and destroyed houses is available at http://www.malibu-ca.gov/download/index.cfm?fuseaction=download&cid=11426

THE CORRAL FIRE--Los Angeles County Fire Department Incident Map--Nov. 24, 6 p.m.

. Origin: Human Activity
. Acreage: 4650
. Homes Lost: 49
. Homes Damaged: 27
. Vehicles Lost: 8
. Deployment: 1750 Firefighters and 23 Aircraft
. Injuries: Six Firefighters (One Serious)
. Current Containment: 45 Percent
. Full Containment Estimated by Tuesday

Provisional List of Fire Damaged/Destroyed Structures(www.ci.malibu.ca.us)

Fire Department Disclaimer: The attached information regarding damagedand destroyed properties is a preliminary list of addresses based on ourfirst damage assessment survey. We have strived to provide the mostaccurate information possible, but please note that this information issubject to change after subsequent, more detailed surveys can becompleted. In the absence of a viable property address, we have listedthe best possible description of the property that has beendamaged/destroyed.

(SFD = Single-family dwelling)*

Jurisdiction: City of Malibu*
6171 Latigo Canyon Road - Damaged: SFD
5055 Latigo Canyon Road - Damaged: SFD + outbuilding
4764 Latigo Canyon Road - Damaged: SFD + outbuilding
6029 Latigo Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD + guesthouse
5078 Latigo Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
5767 Latigo Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
5837 Latigo Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
???? Latigo Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
27069 Sea Vista Drive - Destroyed: SFD
6228 Sycamore Meadows Dr. - Destroyed: SFD
6342 Sycamore Meadows Dr. - Destroyed: SFD
???? Sycamore Meadows Dr. - Destroyed: SFD
6180 Via Escondido - Destroyed: SFD

*Jurisdiction: Los Angeles County*
2501 Barrymore Drive - Destroyed: SFD + mobile home
2875 Barrymore Drive - Destroyed: SFD
2575 Barrymore Drive - Damaged: Outbuilding
1401 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: Guesthouse
16?? Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
1941 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
1947 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
2002 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
2003 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
2007 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed : SFD
2014 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed : SFD
North of 2032 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed : SFD
2033 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
2961 Corral Canyon Road - Destroyed: SFD
1752 Corral Canyon Road - Damaged: SFD Garage
2029 Corral Canyon Road - Damaged: SFD
26257 Coolglen - Damaged: SFD
26272 Coolglen - Damaged: SFD
2901 Coral Glen - Destroyed: SFD
2828 Coral Glen Drive - Damaged: SFD
2850 Coral Glen Drive - Damaged : SFD
2864 Coral Glen Drive - Damaged: SFD
Across from 2828 Coral Glen Drive - Destroyed: SFD
26349 Fairside Way - Destroyed: SFD
26149 Fairside Way - Damaged: SFD
26252 Fairside Way - Damaged: SFD
26258 Fairside Way - Damaged: SFD
26311 Fairside Way - Damaged: SFD
26183 Idlewild Way - Destroyed: SFD
26253 Idlewild Way - Destroyed: SFD
26265 Idlewild Way - Damaged: SFD
26263 Ingleside Way - Destroyed: SFD + outbuilding
26336 Ingleside Way - Destroyed: SFD
26380 Ingleside Way - Destroyed: SFD
26381 Ingleside Way - Destroyed: SFD
26383 Ingleside Way - Destroyed: SFD
26385 Ingleside Way - Damaged: SFD
262?? Lockwood Road - Destroyed: SFD
262?? Lockwood Road - Destroyed: SFD
26303 Lockwood Road - Destroyed: SFD
26309 Lockwood Road - Destroyed: SFD
26315 Lockwood Road - Destroyed: SFD
26329 Lockwood Road - Damaged: SFD Garage
26335 Lockwood Road - Damaged: SFD
1800 Lookout Road - Destroyed: SFD
180? Lookout Road - Destroyed: SFD
1828 Lookout Road - Damaged: SFD
1832 Lookout Road - Damaged: SFD
1836 Lookout Road - Damaged: SFD
2500 Marby Drive - Destroyed: SFD
2724 Seabreeze Drive - Destroyed: SFD
2721 Seabreeze Drive - Damaged: outbuilding horse corral
2700 Searidge Drive - Damaged: SFD
2770 Searidge Drive - Damaged: SFD
2748 Vistamar Drive - Destroyed: SFD
2800 Vistamar Drive - Destroyed: SFD
2812 Vistamar Drive - Destroyed: SFD
2875 Vistamar Drive - Destroyed: SFD
291? Vistamar Drive - Destroyed: SFD
3000 Vistamar Drive - Damaged: SFD

Charter Cable Outage Update--Sunday

Charter Communications’ initial assessment is that approximately 12,000 feet of fiber optic cable was burned in the Corral Fire and needs to be replaced. Also damaged are the power poles where the cable was attached.

The company says Southern California Edison crews must restore downed power lines and poles before cable restoration can begin. Edison has indicated it may be able to complete its repairs by Sunday evening, and Charter will start work as soon as power is restored. Charter had construction underway on a redundant path to improve network reliability since the October fires and says it was only weeks away from completing that path.

The company is providing periodic updates to local government officials and will post updates for customers on the www.charter.com web site.

Corral Canyon Fire - Malibu

Fire started around 3:30 this morning in Corral Canyon It moved down the canyon to PCH and is moving west toward Latigo Canyon.

2200+ acres burned. 35 homes destroyed. 200 homes in the path of the fire.

PCH is closed between Malibu Canyon and Trances. Malibu Canyon Rd., Kanan Dume Rd. and Corral Canyon are closed.

Scoping Session Set for Legacy Park Draft EIR

A public scoping session for the Draft Environmental Impact Report for planned improvements at Malibu Legacy Park is slated for Wednesday, Dec. 5, in the council chambers at City Hall.

The park, which is located on what previously was called the Chili Cook-Off site, is designed with several purposes in mind, including recreation, park and habitat restoration, and stormwater and wastewater reuse.

A public notice explains the planning objectives for the multi-purpose park site.

A major objective is stormwater treatment. The city currently has a stormwater treatment plant to collect and treat up to 1400 gallons per minute of runoff from the Civic Center, Cross Creek and Malibu Colony drainage areas.

The proposed project would increase the treatment capacity of the system now in operation by diverting stormwater flows from existing drains to an eight-acre-foot retention pond that would be located in the park.

Another design element of the park is the wastewater/reuse component. A wastewater plant that would be located outside the park boundaries would be designed to treat 380,000 gallons per day and would produce tertiary treated water.

The first phase of this project involves use of the recycled water for irrigation purposes in the Civic Center area and Legacy Park itself.

Other potential users include up to 25 commercial facilities, outdoor recreation areas, and multiple residential irrigation uses in the Serra Retreat area, according to municipal documents.

The plans also call for developing the existing 15 vacant acres into a community park that would focus on habitat restoration of riparian and coastal species and include a recreational component for environmental education.

Park design might include meandering trails and pathways, benches and waysides, as well as overlooks placed at strategic locations.

The review period begins Nov. 15 and ends Dec. 13. Comments may also be submitted in writing.

MEMORIAL

Driver of Runaway Big Rig Is Mourned at Malibu Crash Site

MEMORIAL—Although information remains scant about the man who was at the wheel of the trailer truck in the Oct. 24 double fatality accident at the intersection of Kanan Dume Road and Pacific Coast Highway, flowers and candles in his memory have been placed at the site where he lost his life. The ribbon on the red-and-white floral cross bears Hovik Oganes Papikyan’s first name, his age of 34, and the date of the accident written in English and his native Armenian.