State officials said firefighters from Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho and Montana have responded or on their way to battle the California blazes. Gov. Jerry Brown said he’s requesting funding from the federal government.

“This is not the new normal, this is the new abnormal. And this new abnormal will continue certainly in the next 10 to 15 to 20 years. Unfortunately, the best science is telling us that dryness, warmth, drought, all those things, they’re going to intensify,” Brown said. “We have a real challenge here threatening our whole way of life, so we’ve got to pull together.”

“We’re dealing with existential conditions that, once they take off, the certain amount of dryness in the vegetation and the soil and the air, then the winds get up 50, 60 miles an hour, this is what happens,” Brown said. “We’re in a new abnormal. Things like this will be a part of our future.”

By Sunday afternoon, Zuma Beach in Malibu had become something of a way station for Malibu residents who had been forced to evacuate their homes but didn’t want to stray too far in the hopes that an evacuation order might be lifted.

Around 8 a.m., Pam Whitman was walking her dog Trapper along the sands with a mask covering her face and a wooden walking stick in her right hand.

“We wanted to be close to home. We have evacuated to Zuma before,” said Whitman, a Realtor who has lived in Malibu for 40 years.

Malibu City Councilman Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner suffered serious injuries while trying to protect his home from the fire, according to another city councilman, Skylar Peak.

Wagner was hospitalized with injuries related to smoke inhalation sometime Friday after he ignored an evacuation order and tried to fend off flames at a house he owned on Old Chimney Road in Latigo Canyon, Peak said.

Peak said Wagner’s wife told him late Saturday night that the well-known surf shop owner was placed in an intensive care unit at a local hospital, but he is expected to survive. Wagner’s house was destroyed, Peak said.

Brad Delaney stood out outside the Arco station on Pacific Coast Highway with a yellow bandanna around his neck and pajama bottoms under his brown shorts.

He had been holed up at the gas station since Friday and excitedly reported that he was in his 35th hour of overtime for Arco.

His car felt like a safer haven than the store because he could actually see if the blaze was close.

More than a dozen blackened husks of homes lined the streets above Malibu High School near Zuma Canyon. Power lines were down and and Southern California Edison crews were out fixing lines.

One the few things that remained of one home on Merritt Road was a metal sign saying welcome. The cars were charred.

A fire crew from Long Beach lay in the grass of the driveway of a home that had been engulfed in flames only hours ago. They were about to move on but then got a flat tire.

Shane Clark walked through the wreckage of his Bell Canyon home on Hitching Post Lane on Sunday afternoon and sifted through the ash to salvage what he could.

His mom, Joline Clark, who also lives in Bell Canyon, stood and watched from the driveway as he scoured where the house used to stand below.

“Are you going down there?” she scolded him.

Around 12:30 p.m. firefighters from the Vernon Fire department looked on as tankers and helicopters bombarded the peaks and slopes of Malibu Canyon with flame retardants and water to put out spot fires that kept coming up.

There were at least two large tankers, one small tanker and four helicopters in the last hour.

This air bombardment helped push the flames back as Los Angeles County Fire Department Engineer Scott Pishe and his team looked on outside of several multimillion dollar homes.

A cool breeze floated over Zuma Beach on Sunday morning around 8 a.m. It had become a way station for stranded Malibu residents and their pets and vintage sports cars.

The parking lot was far less crowded than it had been.

Pam Whitman, a Realtor and 40-year resident of Malibu walked her dog Trapper while wearing a mask over her face and holding a wooden walking stick in her right hand. 

Fire crews raced down the intersection of Bell Canyon Road and Valley Circle late Sunday morning, en route to battle multiple hot spots that flared up at the base of the road.

A crowd of about 30 people stood at the corner, their cellphones out recording video and taking photos as firefighters hiked up the hillside beneath a cloud of thick smoke.

The crews, shouting instructions above the roar of a helicopter and sirens, grabbed hoses and sprayed as a palm tree erupted in flames and dry brush quickly caught fire like tinder, inching toward a home at the top of a ridge.

The California Highway Patrol said it might soon reopen the 101 Freeway, which has been closed for days due to the Woolsey fire. 

“Currently working to re-open the 101 Fwy in both directions, however ramps will be closed in the section between Valley Circle/Mulholland and Reyes Adobe. With return of Santa Ana winds, residents of Topanga are urged to take evacuations seriously,” the CHP said on Twitter. 

It was unclear exactly when the freeway will reopen.