Conservancy Puts Lessons From ’93 Malibu Fire to Good Use

It is a war without end, the fight against fire in the brush-filled parklands of the Santa Monica Mountains.

But using hard-won lessons, civilian employees of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy prevailed last week, joining firefighters to battle raging flames in a successful defense of Malibu’s Solstice Canyon Park.

“Even though we were right in the middle of the fire, the only thing we lost was a Porta Potti,” conservancy Executive Director Joseph Edmiston said.

“We depended on our own resources this time, as opposed to 1993, when we assumed someone would get to us.”

Three years ago, when fire swept through the mountains and canyons from Calabasas to the ocean, the park lost several buildings, including a nature center and a historic home.

That led the conservancy to upgrade its protection by adding an array of new weapons to its firefighting arsenal and by training virtually all its employees.

The planning paid off when flames from last week’s fire threatened the Solstice Canyon Park visitors center; Malibu’s oldest building, the 1865 Stone House; and a former TRW research building, called the “silo,” where pioneer satellite tests were conducted.

Park crews were assisted by Ventura County firefighters, who arrived about 15 minutes before the park was encircled by flames, Edmiston said. “They literally drove in with flames burning about three feet from their truck as they came through the canyon.”

It took park firefighters only minutes to swing into action, once they saw the flames cresting the ridge along Solstice Canyon.