Malibu Breathes Again as Winds, Fire Die Out

Blustery winds that tossed about tree limbs and fanned brush fires calmed Tuesday, saving Malibu from adding another notch to its natural disaster belt.

Some of the 1,000 firefighters who spent Monday standing guard over luxury homes by Tuesday afternoon were lounging on Zuma Beach and strolling barefoot across the sand.

The wildfire that threatened multimillion-dollar coastal homes was 100% contained after blackening 2,200 acres in Trancas, Encinal and Decker canyons, not far from the Ventura County line.

In Riverside County, the Norco fire that burned about 150 acres and damaged five homes was wholly contained. Authorities arrested Cindy Sapper, 45, of Mira Loma on felony arson charges of setting it, said Amber Higgins of the state Department of Forestry.

As the winds waned, so did power outages. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 38,000 Southern California Edison customers remained without electricity. More than 732,000 Edison customers had lost power during the windstorm, 3,500 of them for 24 hours or more. Company spokesman Gil Alexander said it may be a day or two before power is fully restored.

In Glendale, city water and power worker Ralph Rodriguez, 38, sustained fatal injuries when he fell 40 feet from a utility pole while repairing power lines in a darkened neighborhood Monday night. He died at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center early Tuesday, which a city spokesman said was the 16th anniversary of Rodriguez’s employment with Glendale.

On Santa Catalina Island, county fire crews fought a 110-acre brush fire Tuesday afternoon in rugged terrain between the island airport north of Avalon and Rancho Escondido. The blaze, which may have been caused by power lines downed by strong winds, was about 30% contained and was threatening no homes or other structures, said county fire Inspector Kurt Schaefer.

The Malibu blaze came perilously close to dozens of mansions above Pacific Coast Highway near Encinal Canyon Road. Many of the homeowners had just recently moved into the newly built residences, and although aware of Malibu’s proclivity for natural disaster, most weren’t expecting it so soon.

“I didn’t think it would happen for a couple of years,” said John Moritz, 39.

Two houses down at Vinni Marini’s home of five months, he had packed the BMW with family photos, passports and the plasma-screen TV in case he and his wife had to flee with their two children. They didn’t, choosing instead to stumble around their electricity-less house in the glow of scented candles as a fire crew stood ready in the driveway.

Marini periodically donned his 5-year-old son’s snorkeling goggles and went out into the smoke to watch the flames dancing on a nearby hill.

Three homes were damaged, only one seriously.

Firefighters credited residents with using fire-resistant roof tiles and landscaping with green plants that soaked up the recent rains.

The drop in winds, which had gusted up to 60 mph, helped enormously. And fire crews brought in five helicopters to dump water and two air tankers to drop fire retardant.

Before the wind began to die down, flames had skipped across Pacific Coast Highway at El Matador State Beach and fire crews were expecting things to get worse.

Lucile Keller, 68, thought that the house she built to replace one destroyed in a 1978 blaze was going to suffer the same fate as its predecessor.

She had built the new house on the same foundation. “I really thought it was going to go again,” she said. It didn’t.

The fire closed a 10-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County from Las Posas Road south into Malibu, and California Highway Patrol officials were evaluating whether to open the road late Tuesday.

Forecasters said a cooling trend was setting in, with high temperatures in the upper 60s to mid-70s expected today in the Los Angeles Basin.

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Times staff writers Bettina Boxall, David Pierson and Jenifer Ragland contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Malibu Has Long History of Brush Fires

January 2003: A wind-whipped blaze, possibly sparked by downed power lines, damages three homes and forces evacuations of scores of residences in Encinal and Decker canyons. Two California Highway Patrol officers directing traffic at Kanan Dume Road and Pacific Coast Highway are injured when they are hit by a motorist.

October 1996: A brush fire ignited by an arcing power line destroys 10 homes in Malibu, Calabasas Canyon and Corral Canyon, and burns close to 14,000 acres. Estimated cost to Malibu for fighting the fire is $1 million.

November 1993: Three people die when an arson-suspected blaze roars through Calabasas, Malibu, Topanga Canyon, Rambla Pacifica and Tuna Canyon, destroying 388 structures, including 268 homes. Damage is estimated at more than $219 million, which includes nearly $11 million in public property losses. Disaster relief costs for Malibu total $7.8 million.

October 1985: Two arson-caused brush fires in Malibu, one on Piuma Road and another in Decker Canyon, destroy six homes, causing more than $1 million in damage.

October 1982: A wind-driven fire sweeps from Dayton Canyon, northeast of Canoga Park, to the Malibu coast, destroying 97 homes and burning 54,000 acres. Estimated damage is $8.5 million.

October 1978: Eight almost-simultaneous fires destroy 230 homes in a series of blazes stretching from Malibu to Agoura and Mandeville Canyon. One man is killed and damage is estimated at $71.4 million as 26,000 acres are burned.

September 1970: Ten people die and 403 homes are ravaged as several blazes combine into a single wall of flames 20 miles long stretching from Newhall to Malibu. The conflagration chars 435,000 acres and causes an estimated $175 million in property damage.

Source: Times archives