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10 000 evacuated in Malibu fire
24/11/2007 22:47 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Around 10 000 people have been evacuated after wildfires broke out in the Californian resort town of Malibu, an official said Saturday.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told a press conference nearly 10 000 Malibu residents had been evacuated after fires broke out early Saturday, destroying 35 homes and threatening hundreds more.
The second fire in about a month to hit this seaside
enclave hugging the Pacific Ocean, popular with many of
Hollywood's biggest stars, started around 03:30 and has consumed 890 hectares so far,
Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire
Department said.
Officials had no estimate for when the fire, fuelled by
80-kph gusts of wind, might begin to be
contained. More than 500 firefighters have been mobilised to
combat the blaze.
"The terrain is absolutely dry, with low rain and Santa Ana
winds whipping up," Haralson said. "We knew that we were in
red-flag conditions with high winds and low humidity."
Dry mountains drop spectacularly down to the ocean in
Malibu, creating a quintessentially Californian but precarious
place to live.
Spectacular mansions line the narrow beaches and the
brush-covered canyons which snake up into the hills. A stretch
of the landmark Pacific Coast Highway was closed as fire burned
on both sides of the main road through Malibu, Haralson said.
Television coverage showed burning homes perched on the
sides of hills, fire trucks snaking along winding roads, and
planes dropping orange fire retardant on hillsides in the
fire's path.
State fire officials had been on high alert bracing for
fires in tinderbox conditions after a rash of devastating brush
fires last month that swept the dry hills of Southern
California from Malibu south to San Diego.
- Reuters
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