TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Wildfire Strikes Malibu Again

ADVERTISEMENT

By ROBERT JABLON, The Associated Press

Published: November 25, 2007

MALIBU, Calif. - A fast-moving wildfire pushed by Santa Ana winds raced through the canyons and mountains of this wealthy enclave for the second time in little more than a month Saturday, destroying 49 homes and forcing as many as 14,000 residents to flee.

The fire erupted shortly before 3:30 a.m. after the long-predicted Santa Anas returned. By late morning, the fire had grown to 2,200 acres, or about 3 1/2 square miles, but the winds began to die down.

"Waking up at 4 in the morning with the smell of smoke in your nose and the wind beating at the windows is something that we learn to live with here, but it always comes as something of a shock," Mayor Jeff Jennings said.

Twenty-three helicopters and airplanes, including a retardant-dropping DC-10 jumbo jet, attacked from the air while 1,700 firefighters battled flames on the ground. One firefighter suffered a minor eye injury.

"It's great to be able to say that we have no loss of lives," Jennings said.

Helicopters lowered hoses into pools and the nearby Pacific Ocean to refill their tanks for water-dropping runs, and SuperScooper amphibious airplanes skimmed the ocean to reload.

Hundreds of firefighters and equipment from throughout the state had been positioned in Southern California for most of the week because of the predicted winds, which had been expected to blow most of the week but didn't arrive until late Friday.

Officials remained wary, despite the decrease in wind speeds.

The mayor urged residents to "listen to your radios, go outside and see which way the wind is blowing. Stay alert. Stay vigilant."

An estimated 27 homes were damaged, and 10,000 to 14,000 people evacuated, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman.

The fire broke out along a dirt road off a paved highway, and there did not appear to be power lines in the area, Freeman said. Investigators were trying to determine the cause, he said.

Another fire broke out Saturday morning in San Diego County near the town of Ramona and was 40 percent contained after burning 50 acres, said Roxanne Provanik, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

On Saturday, neighbors alerted one another, while authorities drove through Corral Canyon, a neighborhood of about 350 homes, telling people to leave.

As a precaution, officials at Pepperdine University told students to move to a campus shelter, although the school remained largely empty because of the holiday weekend.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT