A Southern California wildfire whipped by “particularly dangerous” winds destroyed homes, shut schools and spurred the evacuation of thousands of people near Malibu.
The Franklin Fire has now scorched about 2,600 acres after starting late Monday and remains out of control, according to Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Strong winds have fanned the blaze, which at one point tripled in size in just an hour early Tuesday.
The National Weather Service is warning that the “particularly dangerous situation” will continue through 2 p.m. local time, though windy conditions will continue to pose a significant threat through Wednesday.
About 18,000 residents were under evacuation orders or warnings as of Tuesday morning. A stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, spanning from roughly Pacific Palisades to central Malibu, has been closed to all traffic except those evacuating the area. All Malibu schools are closed until further notice, and Malibu City Hall has been evacuated, with officials operating out of the nearby city of Calabasas.
“This fire is not contained, and we remain under an immediate threat because of red-flag conditions,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said Tuesday at a press briefing. About 700 firefighters are on the scene, and that figure may swell to as many as 1,000, he said.
Marrone said a “minimal number” of homes have been destroyed and that arson investigators are looking into the cause of the blaze. So far, there have been no reports of injuries or fatalities.
“LA County Fire Department, the LA County Sheriff’s Department, are going to join forces with our arson investigators because it’s going to be critical that we learn why this fire started,” Marrone said. There have been no reports of downed power lines, he said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom secured federal emergency assistance to support the response to the fire, according to a statement Tuesday.
Malibu is one of the state’s wealthiest cities, with miles of pristine beaches and homes selling for a median price of more than $4 million. The evacuation orders cover an area not far from the site of the Getty Fire, a 2019 blaze that burned 745 acres and forced the evacuation of local celebrities including basketball player LeBron James.
Cut Off
The fire is near Malibu Park at Cross Creek, a shopping center with restaurants and a Whole Foods market. It’s part of the mandatory evacuation area that also includes the Malibu Pier, Malibu Colony and other areas with multimillion-dollar homes.
Malibu’s primary link to the rest of the Los Angeles region is the Pacific Coast Highway. With a segment of that road currently shut due to the fire, the exclusive community is mostly cut off.
The wildfire threat across California and other parts of the US West is intensifying as the planet warms. Hotter summers and droughts are leaving vast swaths of vegetation parched, making them vulnerable to any spark that can trigger a blaze. At this time of year, Southern California is also frequently battered by strong Santa Ana winds that come in from the east and can turn small fires into raging infernos.
Franklin Fire Forces Evacuations in Malibu
So far this year, 7,909 fires have burned 1.048 million acres in the state and killed one person, according to Cal Fire. California has had back-to-back plentiful rainy seasons that have left its landscape covered with grasses and shrubs that dried out during this summer’s heat.
Images shared on social media overnight showed Pepperdine students huddled inside school buildings, with flames and smoke visible just outside the windows. By 6 a.m. local time Tuesday, school officials on local media said that the immediate threat to the university had passed.
More than 860,000 people in cities including Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks will face extreme conditions Tuesday as dry winds sweep the region. A larger area of 6.1 million residents, including San Bernardino and Ontario, is under critical conditions.
Sustained winds of up to 35 miles per hour will sweep the region, with some gusts reaching as high as 80 mph, the Storm Prediction Center said.
The situation will remain dire through Wednesday, but conditions will begin to improve as high pressure across Utah and Nevada starts to weaken. The winds are driven by a pressure gradient that has set up over the Great Basin and California’s Pacific coast.
Utilities in Southern California are already shutting off power to reduce the risk of electrical equipment sparking additional blazes. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has cut power to more than 50,000 homes and businesses east of the city, and warned that as many as 67,000 more customers may lose service later.
Southern California Edison has cut power to almost 46,000 homes and businesses, mostly in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The company is warning that as many as 215,000 customers are at risk of losing electricity.
Marrone, the fire chief, said the climate change has made the region more vulnerable to fires.
“We seem to get one significant wildfire every time we have a strong Santa Ana event,” he said. “It’s undeniable, from my perspective, that global warming is causing more challenges for us.”
Top photo: The Franklin Fire in Malibu on Dec. 10. Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images.
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