Aferocious wildfire was spreading rapidly early Tuesday in Malibu, spurring evacuations along the coast while nearby Pepperdine University issued a campus-wide shelter-in-place order and firefighters struggled to battle the flames.
Most of the eastern half of Malibu was ordered evacuated, and the rest of the city was under an evacuation warning. Some 6,000 residents live in the area ordered evacuated, firefighters said — most of the city’s population of about 11,000 residents. About 2,000 structures are affected by the mandatory evacuation order
Dubbed the Franklin fire, the blaze was moving at a fierce pace, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, and had exploded to more than 1,822 acres as of 3 a.m. with no containment, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Flames were reported on both sides of Pacific Coast Highway, with the fire jumping the roadway in at least two locations — the area around Malibu Pier and around Malibu Road and Webb Way, just next to Malibu Colony Plaza, where a Ralphs supermarket is located, according to the city.
Structures were “impacted” along Malibu Knolls Road, where there are a few homes and a church, and in the area of Sweetwater Canyon Drive, where there are more than a dozen homes, the city said.
Residents described having just minutes to flee, as they saw a storm of embers rain down, with hillsides and trees bursting into flames, and having precious little time to decide what to take with them.
“I think I’m in shock right now,” said Malibu city councilmember Bruce Silverstein, who evacuated with his family shortly after he smelled smoke while at home in the hills above City Hall around 11 p.m.
His wife got an alert about the fire and by 11:20 p.m. the flames licked the hillside while the sky grew ever redder. The couple packed their bags and drove on Pacific Coast Highway toward Santa Monica to check into a hotel.
The lawn and trees around the home were “just burning wild,” said Silverstein, who watched as fire gradually approached his property through the Internet-connected Ring cameras stationed around his house.
“My house has come very close to catching fire multiple times in the last couple of hours,” said Silverstein. The bushes and fence at the top of the property burned, a sight rendered in video, but the fire department showed up and doused the area.
