Smoke from La Jolla Fire Drifts over Western Malibu

STRATEGY—Air assaults combined with efforts of the ground crews quickly brought the blaze under control.
AIR MOVEMENT—The smell of smoke from the La Jolla Fire was strong at Leo Carrillo and Encinal Beaches. There was never any danger of the fire heading southeast toward Malibu. MSN/Hans Laetz

• There Was No Local Danger from 32-Acre Blaze Quickly Brought under Control •

BY HANS LAETZ

Malibu got a dose of smoke from the west Wednesday when a fire, possibly set by a transient, burned a mountainside between La Jolla Canyon and Mugu Rock.
The fire caused the closure of Pacific Coast Highway for nearly four hours, and burned 32 acres, before being arrested by a fleet of helicopters, slurry bombers and about 150 firefighters.
Erratic winds helped the firefighters, at several points reversing course and blowing the fire back onto itself, said Ventura County Fire Capt. Alex Sanchez, who is based at Station 56 at County Line Beach.
The blaze was first spotted by a state parks lifeguard at Thornhill Broome Beach, and was burning up the west side of La Jolla Canyon, towards the cliff above Highway 1. The mountain looked like a volcano, with smoke trailing at to sea, by 9 a.m.
“It started out as a classic Santa Ana pattern but then shifted around on us," said Ventura County Fire Capt. Bob Schuett. After making a run at the ocean, the fire doubled back on itself, burning into wild country to the north and down the mountain alongside PCH.
Most of the fire suppression activity was on the northern front, where the La Jolla Canyon Trail was the only firebreak between the blaze and the Bony Ridge area, with houses near Little Sycamore Creek, the Cal State University Channel Islands campus, and subdivisions along Portero Road lying ahead.
"If it had gone over the next hill, there would have been nothing to stop it from hitting Potrero Road and into the university possibly,” said Sanchez.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Erickson SkyCrane, and two Ventura County sheriff’s helicopters sucked up ocean water offshore, and dumped it on the fire’s northern flanks. Fire companies from Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, the Point Mugu Naval Base, National Park Service and Oxnard cut fire lines near the La Jolla Canyon waterfall, about three-quarters of a mile up the canyon.
The eastern flank of the fire was allowed to burn slowly down to the parking lot in the canyon. There, park rangers were seeking a transient who is known to inhabit the wilderness area.
The group campsite at the canyon bottom was not in use, and the handful of campers braving the recent Santa Ana Winds along the beach were not affected.
The fire was substantially out by noon, but fire lines were still being extended around the blackened 32 acres during the afternoon.
The closest structures to the fire were bathrooms at the trailhead, and they were not damaged.