MALIBU, Calif. - Wildfires fanned by fierce desert winds threatened thousands of Southern California homes Monday, as firefighters struggled to combat the blazes that rapidly engulfed the region, killing one and forcing thousands to evacuate.
In many cases, crews couldn’t begin to fight the fires because they were too busy rescuing residents who refused to leave.
“They didn’t evacuate at all, or delayed until it was too late,” said Bill Metcalf, chief of the North County Fire Protection District. “And those folks who are making those decisions are actually stripping fire resources.”
About a dozen blazes erupted over the weekend, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and drought-parched land from the high desert to the Pacific Ocean. Things got worse Monday, when several new fires sprouted, adding to the 40,000 acres — or 62 square miles — that already have burned. The worst damage was in Malibu, where a church, homes and a castle were charred.
Firefighters acknowledged they were overwhelmed.
“You do not expect something to stretch our resources to this magnitude,” Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Sam Padilla said. “To try and staff something this big, you cannot predict it.”
Late Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven Southern California counties.
14 hospitalized in San Diego area
One person died in a fire near San Diego, which burned more than 14,000 acres — or about 22 square miles — 70 miles southeast of San Diego, just north of the Mexican border town of Tecate.
Four firefighters and at least 10 other people were hospitalized. Some of the injured were hikers, and others may be illegal immigrants.
Another blaze devoured more than 5,000 acres in northern San Diego County and forced the evacuation of the community of Ramona, which has a population of about 36,000.
Several structures were burned on the edge of town and sheriff’s deputies called residents to alert them the fire was approaching the city, said San Diego sheriff’s Lt. Phil Brust.
“I can’t ever remember doing this,” Brust said of notifying the town to evacuate. “This fire is crazy.”In Malibu, about 700 firefighters worked to protect hundreds of homes in several upscale communities nestled in the hills. About 1,500 people were evacuated and the blaze destroyed a church and several homes, one of them the landmark Castle Kashan, a stately fortress-like home with turrets and arched windows. Chunks of brick fell from the exterior of the burning building overlooking the coast.
No residents or firefighters were injured, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said.
The castle belonged to Malibu philanthropist Lilly Lawrence, the daughter of a former Iranian oil minister.
“We were in the house and the fire was burning all around us,” said Lawrence, whose Castle Kashan was engulfed by the flames after she and a house guest escaped.
“The loss is way up in the double-digit millions,” Lawrence said, noting the home contained family heirlooms, paintings and Elvis Presley memorabilia bought from his Graceland estate.
She said she was able to gather a few things before the fire engulfed her home, including some jewelry and memorabilia that included Elvis Presley’s Army fatigues.
She didn’t seem too worried about losing most of her belongings in the fire. “My parents taught me not to allow my possessions to possess me,” Lawrence told KABC-TV. “So, that’s the story. The house is a house.”
'Zero percent contained'
Winds carried embers across the Pacific Coast Highway, closing the popular road and setting fire to cars and trees in the parking lot of a shopping center where a supermarket, drug store and other shops were damaged.
“This fire is zero percent contained, which means we’re at the mercy of the wind,” acting Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said Sunday.
In all, five homes and two commercial buildings had been confirmed lost throughout the Malibu area, Michael Freeman said. Nine more homes were damaged, he said.
Some 200 homes were under mandatory evacuation in Malibu, while horse owners in some areas were ordered to evacuate their animals. The main coastal highway through the area was shut from both the north and the south.
Thousands of students at Pepperdine University, near the commercial center of Malibu, returned to their dorms in the evening after spending the day in safe areas on a campus that was built with the high wildfire risk in mind.
The Malibu fire is expected to burn for another two to three days, he said. Until the blaze is extinguished, “there will literally be thousands of homes that will be threatened at one time or another,” Freeman said.
The fire may have been started by downed power lines, Capt. Mike Brown said.
“This is a conflagration we knew was going to come at some point,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Zen Yaroslavsky said at a Malibu press conference Sunday, noting Southern California’s ongoing dry spell. “We are very, very lucky as we stand here tonight that the damage has been as limited as it has been.”
Wildfires are so common in Malibu that actress and resident Shirley MacLaine once joked the postal zip code should be changed to “911” — the phone number for emergencies.