USA: Wildfires tear through Malibu hills, destroying homes and more than two-thousand acres

A fast-spreading wildfire destroyed dozens of homes in the mountains of Southern California's ritzy Malibu area on Saturday (November 24) and was still burning out of control, fire officials said. The second fire in about a month to hit this seaside enclave hugging the Pacific Ocean, popular with many of Hollywood's biggest stars, started around 3:30 a.m. (1130 GMT) local time and has consumed 2,200 acres (890 hectares) so far, Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. Officials had no estimate for when the fire, fuelled by 50-mile-per-hour (80-kph) gusts of wind, might begin to be contained. More than 500 firefighters have been mobilized to combat the blaze. Dry mountains drop spectacularly down to the ocean in Malibu, creating a quintessentially Californian but precarious place to live. Spectacular mansions line the narrow beaches and the brush-covered canyons which snake up into the hills. A stretch of the landmark Pacific Coast Highway was closed as fire burned on both sides of the main road through Malibu. State fire officials had been on high alert bracing for fires in tinderbox conditions after a rash of devastating brush fires last month that swept the dry hills of Southern California from Malibu south to San Diego. Malibu Mayor Jeffrey Jennings was upbeat. "(It's) great to be able to say that we have no loss of lives.... It's certainly not as bad as it could have been." Thirty-five multimillion dollar, ranch-style homes in the hills above central Malibu had been destroyed. More than 200 nearby homes were threatened, the inspector said. The fire started between Mesa Peak and Corral Canyon. Across Southern California, at least a dozen people died, more than 1,500 homes were destroyed and 250,000 residents fled during the blazes in October, the largest evacuation in the state's recent history. Fires around San Diego consumed 640,000 acres alone. The October Malibu fire burned for 11 days, consumed 4,500 acres and damaged or destroyed 22 buildings, fire officials said.

ITN Source | November 25, 2007

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