A brush fire broke out Monday evening off Malibu Canyon Road in Malibu amid Red Flag conditions prompted by Santa Ana winds.
Watch Duty, a nonprofit that tracks wildfires, reported the fire broke out in heavy brush.
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California Highway Patrol logs show it was reported around 10:48 p.m. By 11:18 p.m., crews on the scene reported it had grown to 30 acres, Watch Duty reported. By 11:54 p.m. the fire was at three-alarm status and had reached 100 acres, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. Just before 1 a.m., a fire-mapping aircraft measured the fire at 314 acres. Just before 2 a.m. it was measured at 853 acres with no containment.
Water-dropping helicopters were assisting LA County firefighters on the ground in attacking the Franklin fire, which broke out in the area of Malibu Canyon Road north of Pacific Coast Highway and south of Piuma Road.
Both sides of Malibu Canyon Road were being closed, as well as a stretch of PCH, as evacuations were ordered, CHP logs showed.
The city of Malibu on its website said the Serra Retreat area was under a mandatory evacuation order.
Additional evacuation and evacuation warning areas are displayed on this map.
LA County said that as of around 2 a.m., evacuation orders were in place for south of Piuma Road, north of Pacific Coast Highway, east of Las Virgenes Road and Malibu Road and west of Carbon Beach Terrace.
Evacuation warnings were issued for:
- East of Las Virgenes between Mulholland Highway to the north and Piuma Road to the south
- Between Stunt Road to the north and Los Flores to the south
- East of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north of Pacific Crest highway to the evacuation order boundary
- Topanga Zone 8 and 10
For updated evacuation information, see the City of Malibu site on X and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lost Hills Station site on X.
Watch Duty reported that per Los Angeles County, a Temporary Evacuation Point was designated at Palisades Recreation Center – 851 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.
Large animals can be taken to Pierce College: 6201 Winnetka Ave, Woodland Hills, CA 91367.
Pepperdine University in Malibu on social media said it was not evacuating students and personnel, per its wildfire safety plan, but did activate its shelter-in-place protocol.
“All community members on the Malibu campus are directed to shelter in place in the Tyler Campus Center or Payson Library,” the university said on social media at 1:09 a.m.
Road closure information was posted by the CHP and on the county Public Works website.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage.
Information on what started the fire was not immediately available.
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