United States: There is a Red Flag fire warning in place for the Malibu area in Southern California, which means there’s a high risk of dangerous fires. The Franklin Fire has already forced 18,000 people to evacuate their homes, including some celebrities. Over 8,000 homes and businesses are at risk. These warnings will stay in effect until Wednesday afternoon, so everyone needs to be careful and stay alert.
Many residents are affected and have no electricity, and students were forced out of their classroom.
This developed on Monday by a wildfire that was striking more than five football fields per minute … at least seven structures. Others are dealing with situations which cast a huge loss of dwelling places.
While making rounds to see if his friend’s house was also devastated, 30-year resident of Malibu Fred Roberts said he was concerned about the damage.
As reported by the CNN, I recall I spent my childhood here playing with fellow school mates in the compound of this house. That’s how long I’ve been here, my whole life,” said Roberts to Reuters. “In fact, this is a rather well-known zone, winds are blowing down through Malibu Canyon as if through a torch.”
“I have to say, in my 20 hours of experience today, this has been a traumatic one for the city of Malibu,” Mayor Doug Stewart said in a news conference on Tuesday. Adding that as the fire neared Malibu City Hall, officials transferred their emergency headquarters to Calabasas.
“The entire fire area remains under threat,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone in a news conference Tuesday evening.
“Until the current Red Flag conditions are set aside, gust and low humidity will prevail and wage a very nasty battle to all the firefighters on the line and in the air while trying to tame the stiff fire,” said Marrone.
Fire activity around Pepperdine University’s Malibu campus has decreased, with only small flames remaining as firefighters tackle lingering hot spots, the school alerted at 9:58 p.m. Tuesday. Preliminary evaluations revealed that there is no structural harm or casualties in the building. The community continued to follow the shelter-in-place advisory throughout the night, more information to be released Wednesday morning.
The university has effectively called off all the on-campus exams and has informed that rest of the students would be let go at 9.00 am Wednesday.
It was blowing strong on late Monday into early Tuesday, however, conditions moderated by Tuesday evening. The National Weather Service warned that there are still expected stronger winds through to Wednesday morning.