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Retro Blue VW Van Miraculously Survives Deadly Los Angeles Fire
The Epoch Times ^ | January 15, 2025 | Staff

Posted on 01/15/2025 6:10:17 AM PST by Red Badger

A VW van sits among burned out homes, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo

Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen van he slept in for a year during college was a goner, given that he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades fire ripped through, reducing homes and cars to rubble and charred metal.

So the surfboard maker was stunned to find that the vehicle survived. Not only that, a photo of the vibrant bus taken by an Associated Press photographer was circulating widely on television and online, giving viewers a measure of joy.

“There is magic in that van,” Martin, 24, said Tuesday in an interview with AP. “It makes no sense why this happened. It should have been toasted, but here we are.”

The neighborhood remains closed to the public, and neither Martin nor the friend and business partner to whom he sold the van last summer, Megan Krystle Weinraub, have been able to inspect the vehicle. In other photos of the van, it appears to have soot on its windows, Martin said.

Martin purchased the 1977 Volkswagen Type 2 somewhat on a whim sometime around his junior year studying mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

His mother, Tracey Martin, of Irvine, yelled at him for blowing his money, but Martin told her he’d save on rent by fixing up the inside and living in it his senior year, which he did. She came to love the bus, and sewed curtains for the windows.

(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Outdoors; Travel; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: california; fake; fakenews; fakery; la; lafires; losangeles; malibu; prestonmartin; volkswagen; vw; vwbus; vwvan
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To: Red Badger

It’s the ID Buzz, only $60K!


21 posted on 01/15/2025 7:03:35 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Kamala defines herself in 4 words..."Nothing comes to mind.")
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To: Red Badger

VW Micro Buses go For Crazy money now,
Bugs too.


22 posted on 01/15/2025 7:04:32 AM PST by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: Red Badger

Calling BS, heard the stuff about lasers and blue…. However even if true the heat would have done the van in, still waiting on reports of yeti cups still full of ice 😎🦆


23 posted on 01/15/2025 7:04:43 AM PST by blitz128
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To: Red Badger

2176 with Dual Del Ortos and the
Retro Bus sounds Awsome!
.
I’ve had several in different Flavors,
Love Me some Bugs!


24 posted on 01/15/2025 7:09:24 AM PST by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: Red Badger

Don’t hurt my eyes!


25 posted on 01/15/2025 7:14:25 AM PST by When do we get liberated? (A socialist is a communist who realizes he must suckle the breast of Capitalism.)
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To: Red Badger

I’m calling BS. The van was driven in post firestorm.


26 posted on 01/15/2025 7:20:59 AM PST by KingLudd
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To: KingLudd

… or photoshopped. It was a hellacious firestorm. Look at the surrounding devastation.


27 posted on 01/15/2025 7:23:15 AM PST by KingLudd
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To: Red Badger

Not ‘retro’, it’s vintage or clssic and even the fire seemed to appreciate it.😄


28 posted on 01/15/2025 7:26:10 AM PST by Mastador1
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To: SaveFerris

This couldn’t have been a DEW. Direct Energy Weapons obliterate houses and everything else. Except trees.

Trees are left beautiful, green and unscorched.


29 posted on 01/15/2025 7:27:56 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Man made Climate Change is Real. Cal. Officials responsible for the fires just proved it.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Yeah I never bought into the DEW thing


30 posted on 01/15/2025 7:28:33 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: Red Badger

They might look cool. But they are abysmal.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/are-the-new-vw-id-vans-reliabl-PJ3EJlDwSqSop4YRolMPQg

But then again so was the original VW bus. Which used your knees as the first line of defense in a crash. Good thing those vans hardly went over 40 mph.


31 posted on 01/15/2025 7:30:51 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Man made Climate Change is Real. Cal. Officials responsible for the fires just proved it.)
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To: Red Badger

👍🏻👍🏻


32 posted on 01/15/2025 7:31:26 AM PST by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
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To: SaveFerris

Something had to explain the phenomena of trees being left unburned.


33 posted on 01/15/2025 7:31:41 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Man made Climate Change is Real. Cal. Officials responsible for the fires just proved it.)
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To: Red Badger

Needs a Scooby Doo logo on both sides.


34 posted on 01/15/2025 7:46:03 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (Method, motive, and opportunity: No morals, shear madness and hatred by those who cheat.)
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To: Red Badger

I’ve seen that van before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjyFQsXuhnY


35 posted on 01/15/2025 8:15:08 AM PST by GreenLanternCorps (Hi! I'm the Dread Pirate Roberts! (TM) Ask about franchise opportunities in your area.)
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To: wintertime; Red Badger

Could it be for sale, possibly?


36 posted on 01/15/2025 8:56:46 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: Red Badger

I’m guessing this is staged..


37 posted on 01/15/2025 9:07:48 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: maddog55

There is also the partially melted Toyota pickup that still runs and drives!


38 posted on 01/15/2025 9:19:31 AM PST by kaktuskid
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To: Red Badger
His head must have been full of zombie..............

"Look at me with a brand new Hyundai."

I rather like the looks of the new VW ID. Buzz, but hate about everything else... including the obligatory hippie-era zeitgeist surrounding it. I still cringe when I see my fellow boomers grasping onto any of that schtick, let alone people too young to have actually lived it.

39 posted on 01/15/2025 10:01:22 AM PST by niteowl77
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To: Responsibility2nd

I loved my 1969 model, it was so much fun to drive that I was happy to stay out of the fast lane and cruise along at 60 or 65mph.


40 posted on 01/15/2025 10:54:24 AM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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