Malibu on fire again... (South California)

[fusion]

Well it is close to December and it has yet to rain again, so a 2200 acre fire was started this morning and has grown to 2200 acre in a few hours...

The 2,200-acre blaze, driven by 50-mph winds, engulfs homes in the Malibu Bowl area and forces evacuations in Corral and Trancas canyons.
By Bob Pool and Jason Song, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
10:14 AM PST, November 24, 2007
At least 35 structures have been destroyed and about 200 more are threatened in Malibu as a wind-driven fire raced through 2,200 acres this morning in Corral and Latigo canyons, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes.

The fire, driven by fierce 50-mph winds, engulfed homes along Newell Road in the Malibu Bowl area and Sycamore Road, and was burning west along Pacific Coast Highway toward Kanan Dume Road. It leaped PCH toward the ocean at several spots, but firefighters extinguished the hot spots.

The evacuation zone included neighborhoods in Corral and Trancas canyons and Malibu Bowl. An evacuation center has been opened at Agoura High School.

About 750 firefighters, 45 fire engines, 10 water-dropping helicopters and two fixed-wings planes were attacking the blaze, which broke out at 3:30 a.m. at the top of Corral Canyon Road, fire officials said.

A second fire was burning near the town of Ramona in San Diego County.

"The winds are all over the place and the fire is moving in every direction," Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Sam Padilla said.

The blaze is being called the Corral fire. The cause has not been determined. Downed power lines, toppled power poles and boulders have blocked fire investigators from moving uphill to find the fire's source.

Corral Canyon residents were awakened about 3:30 a.m. by the smell of smoke, sirens and evacuation orders.

"They came by and banged on the door and said, 'You have to get out and get out now,' " said Carol Sue Stoddard, 48, a filmmaker who lives on Corral Canyon Road and saw the fire come down the hills and ignite pine trees next to her house. "I was running in circles. I could have grabbed more, but I was taking footage. . . . Embers were going everywhere."

Stoddard watched her collection of 12 classic cars catch fire as she fled. Although the cars are not insured, her $2-million home is, she said.

Beverly Taki, 53, a Realtor who lives in Corral Canyon, said that the lights in her house went out about 5 a.m. and that she improvised by using the light of her cellphone. Taki said that a legendary resident of Corral Canyon named Ben Kennedy, who has lived there since 1954 and is now in his 90s, had to be evacuated by firefighters after his caretaker's truck was destroyed.

"We are always nervous about fires," she said. "We're a mile and a half up the canyon."

Sonia Enriquez, a 29-year-old model, said that she smelled smoke about 3:30 a.m. in her home in the 26000 block of Latigo Shore Drive but that she "thought it just must be the old ashes and I went back to sleep. . . . I woke up an hour and a half later and there was fire all over the place."

By 5 a.m., she had fled. "It never got this close before," said Enriquez, who returned home by 6:30 a.m. after the danger had passed. "We knew the Santa Anas were coming, but you just don't think it's going to happen again so soon."

Malibu was hit in October by a brush fire that destroyed or damaged more than a dozen structures.

Dry conditions and a return of Santa Ana winds prompted red flag warnings Friday by the National Weather Service for Los Angeles and six other counties, an indication of added fire risks.

The warnings, which took effect at noon in mountain areas of L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura and Kern counties, are expected to last until at least 6 p.m. Sunday. Winds of up to 75 mph are expected.

Warnings also were issued for coastal areas -- where gusts of up to 60 mph are expected -- until noon Sunday.

Red flag parking restrictions will be in effect until at least 10 p.m. today for the Hollywood Hills and other fire-prone areas of the city, Los Angeles fire officials said.

"If something sparks up, this does have the potential to get very serious and out of hand," said Ryan Kittell, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "That's why we have the red flag warnings -- to alert the fire agencies and the general public that with these winds it doesn't take much for something to start growing."

Kittell said a cold storm system moving across Arizona from Utah was keeping temperatures unusually mild for Santa Anas -- in the low 70s during the day -- bringing stronger-than-expected winds and blowing out lingering fog as the humidity dips to the single digits.

Fire agencies scrambled to bring added resources to Southern California amid decreasing humidity and increasing winds.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had a dozen helicopters on standby, including five supplied by the California Army National Guard; 270 fire engines; more than 1,000 personnel; and two incident command teams across the region, said spokesman Daniel Berlant.

Federal resources included 11 air tankers, 18 helicopters, four military C-130s, 170 fire engines, 21 hand crews and four incident management teams, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Berlant said the added personnel and equipment would stay in the area through the weekend.

Winds are expected to die down Sunday but pick up again as a new storm moves into the area Tuesday.

So yeah...

[Drewcifer]

I'm in the LA area right now, and luckily, we only had a day or two of the Santa Ana winds this time; the offshore flow has returned and the winds have calmed down. The big fire, the Corral Fire, will probably be contained in a day or two. Hooray!