Big name stars and celebrities were forced from their Malibu mansions by a fierce blaze. An arson investigation is underway but officials are stressing that there’s no reason to believe that’s the cause. Initial reports blamed the power company but those were almost instantly retracted. This could be the big push Cher needed to complete her promised move to Canada. She was one of those displaced.
Malibu up in flames
Malibu has been deserted as the Franklin Fire forced evacuation orders or warnings for 20,000 residents. Most of them are big name celebrities. Neil Young is homeless. His was one of the structures destroyed in the blaze.
Cher is staying in a hotel, while Mark Hamill “went into lockdown on Tuesday.” He’s got a shelter. “Please stay safe everyone! I’m not allowed to leave the house, which fits in perfectly with my elderly-recluse lifestyle,” Hamill relates to fans on Instagram.
Malibu resident Dick Van Dyke is having a traumatic day. He and his wife, Arlene, “fled their home with pets in tow, though one of their cats is missing.” The iconic actor broke the distressing news about Bobo on Facebook.
The infamous Santa Ana wind fueling the inferno is expected to continue blowing strong through Wednesday evening. Along with the homes of Hollywood’s finest stars, “more than 8,000 homes and businesses” went up in flames.
Finals week at Pepperdine University’s Malibu campus was interrupted as parts of the campus got scorched. The “shelter-in-place protocol was lifted Wednesday morning,” the university announced, right about the same time power came back on.
“The university has canceled all on-campus finals and announced remaining students would be allowed to leave.”
No deaths reported
According to Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone, “Initial assessments indicate at least seven structures destroyed and eight damaged, though further evaluations are pending.” As of the time his statement was issued, “no deaths or injuries have been reported.”
Weather officials were hoping the gusty winds would taper off on Wednesday but the wind blowing through Malibu canyon didn’t choose to cooperate. Conditions are a little better but not improved as much as everyone hoped.
As “longtime” resident Fred Roberts was checking out the damage to a friend’s home, he related to the press, “I remember playing in this house in the front yard with my schoolmates. That’s how long I’ve been here, my whole life. This is a notorious area, winds coming straight down Malibu Canyon like a blowtorch.”
At the peak of combustion, the fire was “consuming an area larger than five football fields per minute.”
The latest updates issued Wednesday evening, December 11, note that weather conditions had improved after all. Enough to say that “high fire danger had diminished significantly.” It’s still not clear how the fire began.
Real estate developer Lonnie Vidaurri’s “four-bedroom home in the Malibu Knolls neighborhood is one of the seven destroyed.” He informs on social media that “after evacuating to a hotel in Santa Monica with his wife and two young daughters,” a neighbor called to say “that firefighters would need to break into his house.” He’s bracing his daughters for the worst because he “expects that the family’s pet bunnies did not survive the fire.” They lost most of their things but “it could have been worse.“
