Schools shut in Los Angeles County as California wildfire triples in size within one hour

A wind-fanned wildfire in Malibu, California, tripled in size over the course of an hour early Tuesday morning, spurring evacuation orders, forcing schools to shut and closing a segment of the Pacific Coast Highway.

The Franklin Fire, which was burning out of control in Los Angeles County, scorched approximately 1,822 acres overnight, according to Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation. All Malibu schools are closed until further notice, while Pepperdine University canceled classes and issued a shelter-in-place order.

By Tuesday morning, at least 6,000 residents had been ordered to evacuate, with another 12,500 under evacuation warnings as the fire continued to spread. A stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, spanning from roughly Pacific Palisades to central Malibu, has been closed to all traffic except those evacuating the area. 

“Critical to extremely critical fire weather conditions are expected today along the southern CA coast, posing a high-end fire weather threat,” the US Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday. 

Malibu is one of the state’s wealthiest towns, with miles of pristine beaches and homes selling for a median price of more than $4 million. The evacuation orders cover an area not far from the site of the Getty Fire, a 2019 blaze that burned 745 acres and forced the evacuation of local celebrities including basketball player Lebron James.

The Pacific Coast Highway is the primary link to Malibu. With a segment of that road currently shut due to the fire, the exclusive community is mostly cut off from the rest of the Los Angeles region.

The wildfire threat across California and other parts of the US West is intensifying as the planet warms. Hotter summers and droughts are leaving vast swaths of vegetation parched, making them vulnerable to any spark that can trigger a blaze. At this time of year, Southern California is also frequently battered by strong Santa Ana winds that come in from the east and can turn small fires into raging infernos.

So far this year, 7,897 fires have burned 1.045 million acres in the state and killed one person, according to Cal Fire. California has had back-to-back plentiful rainy seasons that have left its landscape covered with grasses and shrubs that dried out during this summer’s heat.

Images shared on social media overnight showed Pepperdine students huddled inside school buildings, with flames and smoke visible just outside the windows. By 6 a.m. local time Tuesday, school officials on local media said that the immediate threat to the university had passed. 

More than 860,000 people in cities including Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks will face extreme conditions Tuesday as dry winds sweep the region. A larger area of 6.1 million residents, including San Bernardino and Ontario, is under critical conditions.

Sustained winds of up to 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour will sweep the region, with some gusts reaching as high as 75 mph, the Storm Prediction Center said. The winds will rise in intensity through the morning.

The situation will remain dire through Wednesday, but conditions will begin to improve as high pressure across Utah and Nevada starts to weaken. The winds are driven by a pressure gradient that has set up over the Great Basin and California’s Pacific coast.

Utilities in Southern California are already shutting off power to reduce the risk of electrical equipment sparking additional blazes. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. had cut power to more than 50,000 homes and businesses east of the city as of Tuesday morning, and warned that as many as 67,000 more customers may lose service later. Southern California Edison has shut off a few dozen customers but said that as many as 39,000 homes and businesses may lose electricity.