fire in malibu hills

the santa-ana's blew in last night.

hot sustained winds from the inland empire of 50-60 mph with gusts up to 110mph. at some point during the evening, these winds knocked over a power-line and started a fire. to top it all off, we are on the heels of our 2nd driest summer ever.

even though the winds abated quite a bit during the day, the fire blew through several canyons and has burned some major landmarks in Malibu including the castle of prince lawrence (a multi-multi million dollar residence that contained a LOT of valuable art) and the malibu presbyterian church.

i considered riding my bike up pch a little to get photos of the flames, but reconsidered after seeing ash fall from the sky. i took this photo from the end of my street on the beach, mid-afternoon. as i was walking up, there were several people playing vollyball. one of them stopped, looked at us, then at the fire and said "oh damn, did i forget to turn off the bbq-pit this morning?"

last i heard, pepperdine university was saved, but the fire is still raging. much of malibu has been evacuated. as the sun sets tonight, we can only hope the winds don't shift since the lower edge of the fire-line is only 4-5 miles away from our house.