Fire Burns 4,500 Acres, 51 Houses In Malibu

(CBS) 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 more than 30 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 finally returned, and it quickly grew before the winds died down. By midafternoon it was estimated at 4,500 acres, or about 7 square miles, with 25 percent containment.

"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," said Mayor Jeff Jennings.

Fifteen helicopters and 15 airplanes, including a retardant-dropping DC-10 jumbo jet, attacked from the air while 1,700 firefighters battled flames on the ground. Six firefighters suffered minor injuries.

"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 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 51 homes were destroyed, and 10,000 to 14,000 people evacuated.

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.

A hotspot flared for a time on several ridges behind Pepperdine University, but the campus did not appear to have been endangered. Helicopters used its broad ocean view lawn as a landing zone.

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

Another fire near Ramona in San Diego County was fully contained at 50 acres. A firefighter suffered a minor cut when an air tanker flying overhead dropped heavy retardant on a fire engine, breaking its windshield.

Power lines blown down by fierce winds caused last month's 4,565-acre Canyon Fire in Malibu that destroyed six homes, two businesses and a church. That blaze was part of siege of more than 15 Santa Ana-stoked wildfires that destroyed more than 2,000 homes, killed 14 people and blackened a total of 809 square miles between Los Angeles County and the U.S.-Mexico border.

Santa Anas, triggered by high pressure over the Great Basin, blow into Southern California from the north and northeast, racing down through the canyons and passes of the region's east-west mountain ranges and out to sea, pushing back the normal flow of moist ocean air.

Malibu, with homes tucked into deep and narrow canyons along 27 miles of coast on the southern foot of the Santa Monica Mountains, is prone to Santa Ana-driven wildfires. Among them was a 1993 blaze that destroyed 388 structures, including 268 homes, and killed three people.

Saturday's fire burned to the west of the portions of Malibu that burned in October.

Neighbors alerted one another, while authorities drove through Corral Canyon, a neighborhood of about 350 homes, telling people to leave. Along some narrow roads, several homes were reduced to embers while their neighbors were untouched.

Meredith Lobel-Angel, 51, and her husband, Frank Angel, 54, said they had 15 minutes to leave their split-level home and managed to take little other than some clothes and their laptops.

"I ran out on the deck and I just saw a little fire and smoke up the canyon on the ridge (about a mile away)," Frank Angel said.

"By the time we evacuated it was already over the ridge. It spread faster than I've ever seen it."

Carol Stoddard, 48, a freelance videographer and photographer, captured some of the fire's destruction as trees beside her home and her collection of 12 uninsured cars burned.

"I stayed there until I couldn't breathe and the embers were flying everywhere," she said. "It was dark and I was standing around my house. I couldn't see. I couldn't grab enough stuff that was of importance like my passport."

She later returned to find that her wooden $2 million home had burned to the foundation. Appearing in shock, she said she was numb.

Some evacuees were treated to moments of joy and relief.

Geraldine Gilliland, 56, shrieked with happiness as an animal control officer reunited her with her six dogs and 21-year-old cat, left in her house when the fire drove workers at the property down the canyon.

"Oh my God. They got them, they got them, they got them!" she said, kneeling to embrace her pets. "You can't put a price on human life or canine life; these are my babies."


To anyone that is the Malibu, Ca area, my thoughts are definately with you, durung this time.

Was just watching that on the news jedi!!!

sitting back watching this devistation its times like this i miss being a firefighter for the forestry service.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the firefighters at this time.