More than 3,700 residents were allowed to return to their Malibu homes on Thursday after calmer winds and rising humidity in southern California helped firefighters battle a blaze that had forced thousands, including celebrities, to evacuate earlier this week.
But another 1,600 people with homes in Malibu – a city typically known for its rugged canyons, stunning bluffs and celebrities’ seaside mansions – remained under evacuation orders. All told, about 20,000 residents in the city and neighboring areas had been affected by mandatory evacuation orders and warnings since the fire broke out late Monday.
Firefighters continued to battle the blaze, dubbed the Franklin fire, which was only 20% contained over about 6.3 sq miles (16.3 sq km) on Thursday. The flames were fed by powerful winds that swept through the region in the beginning of the week. But the weather improved so much on Wednesday that meteorologists discontinued all red flag warnings, which indicate high fire danger, and fire crews were able to successfully push back against the flames.
Winds would continue to ease, said meteorologist Mike Wofford with the National Weather Service’s office for Los Angeles.
It is unclear how the blaze started. Officials said nine structures had been destroyed and at least six others had been damaged, though crews had only surveyed about 25% of the affected area, said the deputy chief Albert Yanagisawa of the Los Angeles county fire department.
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 famous beaches.
“This is a tragedy that goes beyond our personal residences,” Malibu mayor Doug Stewart said, adding that restaurants have lost food in their freezers from power outages and people who travel to Malibu for employment are out of work.
The 3,700 residents were allowed to return on Thursday after the county sheriff’s department lifted mandatory evacuation orders.
Flames had burned near horse farms, celebrities’ seaside mansions, and Pepperdine University, where students were ordered to shelter in place on campus for a second night on Tuesday.
Faculty members are determining how best to complete the semester, which ends this week. Final exams were postponed or canceled, depending on the class, a university spokesperson, Michael Friel, said. An early analysis showed little to no damage to structures on campus, the university said.
Lonnie Vidaurri’s four-bedroom home in the Malibu Knolls neighborhood is one of those destroyed. After evacuating to a hotel in Santa Monica with his wife and two young daughters, a neighbor called to tell Vidaurri that firefighters would need to break into his house.
“It’s pretty torched all around,” Vidaurri said. He expects that the family’s pet bunnies did not survive the fire, and that they lost most of their things. “My girls cried, obviously, but it could have been worse.”
Mimi Teller, a Red Cross spokesperson who worked in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, said many people arrived in their pajamas and were “definitely in shock”.
“Nobody even had a backpack, it was: ‘Get out now,’” Teller said. “One lady didn’t even have a leash for her dog, she just scooped them up.”
Shawn Smith said he was asleep early on Tuesday when someone knocked on his RV at 3am to wake him up to evacuate the Malibu RV Park.
“You could see the fires rolling in, in over the canyon,” he said. “It was like ‘Holy crap, this is real.’”
He returned on Wednesday to find that the RV park had been saved – firefighters stopped the flames just before they entered the area.
“We got lucky,” he said.
Cher, one of many celebrities with homes in Malibu, evacuated from her Malibu home when ordered and is staying at a hotel, her publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said on Tuesday.
And Dick Van Dyke said in a Facebook post that he and his wife, Arlene Silver, fled as the fire swept in. The actor later told NBC’s Today that neighbors helped him get out.
“I was trying to crawl to the car. I had exhausted myself. I couldn’t get up,” said Van Dyke, who turns 99 on Friday. “And three neighbors came and carried me out, and came back and put out a little fire in the guesthouse and saved me.”
The fire erupted shortly before 11pm on Monday and swiftly moved south, jumping over the Pacific Coast Highway and extending all the way to the ocean. It was propelled by Santa Ana winds, fierce seasonal winds that blow dry air from the interior toward the coast.
Utilities preemptively shut off power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, starting on Monday night, to mitigate the impacts of the Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts can damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires. As of Thursday morning, electricity had been restored for all southern California Edison customers, said utility spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas.
The Woolsey fire that roared through the area in 2018, killing three people and destroying 1,600 homes, was sparked by Edison equipment. Asked on Wednesday if Edison equipment was involved in the Franklin fire, Ornelas referred all questions regarding the cause to fire officials.
