Malibu wildfire grows, thousands remain evacuated but firefighters get break from improving weather

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Officials in Southern California reported significant overnight growth of a wind-driven wildfire that has forced thousands of people, including celebrities like Cher and Dick Van Dyke, from their homes in Malibu, but forecasters said firefighters could get a break Wednesday from improving weather conditions.

With much of the coastal city under evacuation orders and warnings, residents waited anxiously to see whether their properties had been spared by the fire, which erupted late Monday and grew to more than 6 square miles (16 square kilometers). It was just 7% contained.

More than 1,500 firefighters were battling the blaze, with many climbing through steep canyons near lines of flames and others hosing down collapsed roofs of horse stables and charred homes. Aircraft dropped water and flame retardant.

“The deep and rugged terrain, along with the strong winds and low humidity, continue to pose challenges for firefighters,” the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said in an incident update.

The National Weather Service said the strongest Santa Ana winds, with gusts that reached 40 mph (64 kph), have passed.

“We’re far better off this morning than we were in the last 30-plus hours,” Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart said at a Wednesday news conference.

Even as the weather was expected to improve, forecasters said gusty winds will continue through Wednesday morning, especially in the mountains, and critical fire conditions remain. Santa Anas are notorious seasonal winds are withering, dry gusts that sweep out of the interior toward the coast, pushing back moist ocean breezes.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony C. Marrone said the blaze, dubbed the Franklin Fire, grew by nearly 40% overnight. At least 7,500 structures, mostly homes, were threatened, with at least 12,600 people under evacuation orders, officials said.

Much of the devastation occurred in Malibu, a community of about 10,000 people on the western edge of Los Angeles known for its stunning bluffs and Zuma Beach, which features in many Hollywood films. Flames burned near horse farms, celebrities’ seaside mansions, and Pepperdine University, where students were forced to shelter in place on campus for a second night Tuesday.

The fire approached the campus again as winds picked up speed starting late Tuesday afternoon, university spokesperson Michael Friel said Wednesday. “You literally could see the flames from the top of the hill from campus,” he said.

Most students had already left the picturesque campus during a lull in fire activity, but the several hundred who remained were congregated on campus under the second shelter-in-place order starting at 4:30 pm Tuesday. It was lifted around dawn Wednesday after the fire neared the edge of campus where brush was cleared and it ran out of fuel, Friel said.

Faculty members are determining how best to complete the semester, which ends at Pepperdine this week. Final exams were postponed or canceled, depending on the class, Friel said. An early analysis showed little to no damage to structures on campus, the university said.

Shawn Smith said he was asleep early Tuesday when someone knocked on his mobile home to wake him up to evacuate the Malibu RV Park around 3 a.m.

“You could see the fires rolling in, in over the canyon. It was like ‘Holy crap, this is real,’ ” he said.

He returned Wednesday to find that the RV park had been saved — firefighters stopped the flames just before they entered the area. But for hours, Smith said no one knew whether they’d return to rubble.

“We got lucky,” he said.

It’s unclear how the blaze started. Marrone said seven structures had been destroyed and nine others had been damaged.

Many major fires have burned in Malibu, and there’s now a familiar cycle where once-lush vegetation is charred.

“It burns, it grows back, and we’re resilient and strong,” the mayor said Tuesday.

Van Dyke, one of many celebrities with homes in Malibu, said in a Facebook post that he and his wife, Arlene Silver, evacuated as the fire swept in. Although the couple and most of their animals evacuated safely, one of their cats, Bobo, escaped as they were leaving. “We’re praying he’ll be OK and that our community in Serra Retreat will survive these terrible fires,” he wrote.

Cher evacuated from her Malibu home when ordered and is staying at a hotel, her publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said Tuesday.

The fire erupted shortly before 11 p.m. Monday and swiftly moved south, jumping over the famous Pacific Coast Highway and extending all the way to the ocean, where large homes line the beach and rugged inland canyons are notoriously fire-prone.

Utilities preemptively shut off power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, starting Monday night, to mitigate the impacts of the Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts can damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires. As of Wednesday morning, electricity was still out for about 13,500 Southern California Edison customers, including more than 6,000 in the Malibu area, said utility spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas. She said power was first shut off to most customers in Malibu around 6 or 7 p.m. on Monday.

The Woolsey Fire that roared through the area in 2018, killing three people and destroying 1,600 homes, was sparked by Edison equipment. Asked Wednesday if Edison equipment was involved in the Franklin Fire, Ornelas referred all questions regarding the cause to fire officials.

While Malibu is known for its celebrity and uber-wealthy residents, Kasey Earnest, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu, said Tuesday that she’s especially concerned about the lower- and middle-class families, ranchers and farmers who also live in the community.

“I refer to those residents as the heart of Malibu,” she said. “They’re just normal families — nobody’s landing a helicopter on their property.”

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Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Amy Taxin in Orange County, California; Gabriela Aoun in San Diego; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; contributed to this report.

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