Wildfire destroys 35 homes

Up to 14,000 people were evacuated.

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Blue ocean. Burned hills.

The view from Latigo Canyon was dramatic, but Gerry Wersh and girlfriend Laura Bevitz had no time to take it in as they used shovels to bury hot embers from the fire that swept close to Wersh’s home early Saturday.

“It was like a wall, a solid wall,” Wersh, 46, said of the 75-foot-high flames driven by Santa Ana winds.

“I tell you there was one point where I thought it was gone,” Wersh said as singed rock and smoldering logs littered the road in front of his still-standing home and clumps of brush continued to burn nearby.

But they were the lucky ones after flames raced through the canyons and mountains of Malibu for the second time in little more than a month.

An estimated 35 homes were destroyed and 10,000 to 14,000 people evacuated, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman.

The fire erupted shortly before 3:30 a.m. after long-predicted Santa Ana winds finally arrived, and it quickly grew before the winds died down. By midafternoon it was estimated at 4,500 acres, or about 7 square miles, with 25 percent containment.

“Waking up at 4 in the morning with the smell of smoke in your nose and the wind beating at the windows is something that we learn to live with here, but it always comes as something of a shock,” said Mayor Jeff Jennings.

Fifteen helicopters and 15 airplanes, including a retardant-dropping DC-10 jumbo jet, attacked from the air, while 1,700 firefighters battled flames on the ground. One firefighter suffered an unspecified moderate injury, and five others suffered minor injuries.

“It’s great to be able to say that we have no loss of lives,” Jennings said.

Helicopters lowered hoses into pools and the nearby Pacific to refill their tanks for water-dropping runs, and SuperScooper amphibious airplanes skimmed the ocean to reload.

Hundreds of firefighters and equipment from throughout the state had been positioned in Southern California for most of the week because of the winds, which had been expected to blow most of the week but didn’t arrive until late Friday.

Officials remained wary despite the decrease in wind speed.

The mayor urged residents to “listen to your radios, go outside and see which way the wind is blowing. Stay alert. Stay vigilant.”

The Malibu fire broke out along a dirt road off a paved highway, and there did not appear to be power lines in the area, Freeman said. Investigators were trying to determine the cause, he said.