MALIBU, Calif. — More than a half-dozen wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds spread across Southern California on Sunday, killing one person near San Diego and destroying several homes and a church in celebrity-laden Malibu.
Beside the death, four firefighters and 10 other people were injured and taken to hospitals, said Forestry Department spokeswoman said.
The fire was one of eight Sunday from northern Los Angeles County down to south San Diego.
About 500 firefighters worked to protect Pepperdine University and about 200 homes in the upscale Malibu Crest and Serra Retreat neighborhoods, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Sam Padilla.
The blaze had charred at least 1,200 acres, more than a square mile. Wind that gusted as high as 65 mph carried embers across the Pacific Coast Highway, closing the popular road and setting fire to cars and trees in the parking lot of a shopping center, where several stores were damaged.
“This fire is zero percent contained, which means we’re at the mercy of the wind,” acting Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said.
Flames consumed the landmark Castle Kashan, a stately fortresslike home with turrets and arched windows.
Faculty and staff members at the 830-acre Pepperdine campus were urged to evacuate, school spokesman Jerry Derloshon said. Students were told to gather their belongings from their dorm rooms and report to the school’s cafeteria and basketball arena.
But by early afternoon the campus was “secure,” county Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said. Flames were no longer visible in the hills around the school, and power had been restored, Derloshon said.
At least three homes and two commercial buildings had been confirmed destroyed in the area, and nine other homes were damaged, Freeman said.
The fire is expected to burn for another two to three days, Freeman said. Until it is extinguished, “there will literally be thousands of homes that will be threatened at one time or another,” he said.
Fire crews had found downed power lines, which may have started the blaze in Malibu Canyon, fire Capt. Mike Brown said.
Erratic wind gusts hampered efforts to drop water from aircraft and pushed flames toward HRL Laboratories, commonly known as Hughes Lab, a research and engineering facility jointly owned by Boeing Co. and General Motors Corp. about a mile north of Pepperdine. One outbuilding caught fire, Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball said.
Flames engulfed Malibu Presbyterian Church, which had been evacuated.
“We’re all scared to death and we have nowhere to go,” said Susan Nuttall, 51, still wearing a bathrobe and holding her Chihuahua, after fleeing her condo just below the Pepperdine campus.
Mitra Rajabi came to get her 80-year-old mother from her home near Pepperdine.
“We’ve been through this before, but it’s never been this bad,” said Rajabi, 39, of Pacific Palisades. “It was like a war zone.”
About 200 homes were evacuated the communities of Malibu Colony, Puerco Canyon, Monte Nido and Sweetwater Canyon, Brown said.
To the south, a blaze was also burning near Potrero, about 40 miles southeast of San Diego, fire officials said. One structure had been destroyed and an unknown number of people evacuated, officials said. Fifty to 100 homes were potentially in harm’s way.
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