2 Sunbathers Buried, Extricate Selves After Pacific Palisades Landslide

A couple soaking up the sun at a Pacific Palisades beach were buried under a pile of dirt and rocks Wednesday when part of a 20-foot-high cliff collapsed on top of them, Los Angeles County fire officials said.

The man and woman, both in their mid-20s, were not seriously injured, authorities said. They had been sunning for 20 minutes at Will Rogers Beach in the 17000 block of Pacific Coast Highway when the embankment collapsed about 11:40 a.m., said Danny Douglas, a county lifeguard from the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Lifeguard Division.

“It was like someone backed up a dump truck and dumped all this dirt and rocks all over us,” said the 27-year-old man, who asked that couple’s names not be released. “It just covered our area.”

The man freed himself and then assisted the woman in extricating herself from the dirt and rubble that completely covered them for about a minute, the man said.

“There were some heavy rocks in the earth that hurt us, mostly our heads and necks,” he said.

Douglas, who has worked as a lifeguard for 13 years at the Pacific Palisades beach and the shores of Venice and Manhattan Beach, said such landslides at the beach are rare.

“It doesn’t happen during the summer,” Douglas said. “It usually happens in the winter when we get heavy rains, but those are usually on the roadside.”

About 50 people were at the small beach at the time of the incident. No other sunbathers were affected by the dirt that covered a small part of the shoreline, Douglas said.

Paramedics transported the Northridge couple to Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center where they were treated for minor injuries to the head and neck.

Douglas said the department is evaluating the area to identify beachareas that might require safety signs.