Posted on 11/24/2007 4:37:19 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Celebrities flee, homes gutted as wildfire ravages Malibu Nov 24 05:47 PM US/Eastern Hollywood stars were among nearly 10,000 people forced to flee as wind-driven wildfires tore through the celebrity enclave of Malibu on Saturday, gutting at least 35 multi-million dollar homes and threatening hundreds more, officials and reports said.
Fires erupted at around 3:30 am (1130 GMT) officials said, spreading rapidly through tinder-dry brush as winds packing gusts of up to 50 mph fanned the inferno, the second major blaze to hit Malibu in the space of a month.
By 10:30 am (1830 GMT), around 2,200 acres had been scorched as the flames burned unchecked, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said.
Around 1,700 firefighters had been deployed to tackle the fires, backed up by 23 aircraft including water-dropping helicopters and a DC-10 which was pummeling the infernos with flame retardant.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told a press conference 10,000 residents had been evacuated. Only one injury had been reported so far, a firefighter who received burns which were not thought serious, he added.
Local media reports said actors Matthew McConaughey and Minnie Driver were among those forced to evacuate while Red Hot Chili Peppers bass guitarist Flea's home was destroyed by the flames.
Yaroslavsky said winds blowing across the region had begun to ease later Saturday, offering encouragement to firefighters. However he warned the situation could change rapidly.
"It's a very dynamic and dangerous situation," he told reporters. "The winds have died down but we need to caution everyone that winds can start again in a hurry. It does not mean people are out of danger.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The state needs more common sense folks like you, BG. I don’t think I’d even recognize the place these days. (Haven’t been back there in almost a decade.)
Of course us smart folk, don't build homes in a wildfire zone or on a floodplain.
Ok, but if you keep on doing the same things over and over, you’ll get the same results over and over. Build the fire roads. Clear the brush.
MOST of us out here are conservative...
I thought there was a probation period. I remember a posting of mine being held up for review because the system somehow became convinced I was a newbie recently. (I joine in 1999.)
You’re nuts.
Hey, guys...not all of us are whackos. In fact, most of our fruits and nuts are imported from the other states. The natives of more than a generation are more PO'd than the rest of you by the actions and the messages these freaks emit!
I’m not laughing...I’m terribly sorry you are hurting.
Please forgive some who would criticize or make light of the fires.
Most have no clue what a house fire can do to one.
We had a house fire, and even though it didn’t burn the place down,
it was a very traumatic experience.
I read once that watching your house burn is second only to the death
of a loved one in the traumatic category.
My thoughts and prayers are with you.
A loss is a loss. Your class envy is disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
I am ashamed of myself! Thank you, Father!
What do “EnviroNazis” have to do with the current fire?
Isn’t the Corral Fire what is under discussion here?
Our wildfires have more to do with the patterns of nature than with anything else. I’m not going to talk to the nutcases, but I KNOW there is beaucoup brush clearance, etcetera, that takes place in fire-prone areas and no one is stopping it. In fact, it is either mandated or strongly suggested to do so.
There is no way to prevent ANY wildfires from EVER happening. I don’t cave in to the out-of-state critics and know-it-alls who attack us when we are having an emergency. I’m not going to sit here and agree that common sense is prohibited in California when that is NOT the case.
Nothing personal, but that is just my way and it has nothing to do with whether I am conservative. If you wish to think I am otherwise just because I don’t freak out, be my guest.
Dittoes.
More Californians have sacrificed their lives fighting in Iraq than any other state, the same state that rates America's #1 economic powerhouse, with no other state coming close.
So of course, conservatives like you, on a conservative website are going to wish for death and destruction of those in California...
Ya know, freakish, twisted, sick comments such as yours and the other sick bucket mouth here are more than scary.
I'd pay good money to see you two jackass go amongst the victims who've lost *everything*, victims who've lost family members, families of the injured, families of dead fire fighters and walk among them and shoot your mouths off.
I'd pay good money to see that.
And I'd quietly nod in agreement as they stomped you both into the ground.
Bump that!
WHY doesn't everyone build with a termite-free material then?
You people act like you have no idea how easy embers fly far across the land and start another fire and their embers do the same....and the winds carry them and the fire jumps to places you'd never imagine.
People's homes are burning, people.
We've got us a live one here!
Either you're a troll, or a complete idiot. (or both) State regulations require clearing a 100 foot radius around your home, of ground-story flammables.
The upside, the silver lining, always think positively, is that after it’s all over, there may be no celebrities left (no pun intended) to tell us how to live, how to vote, how to think, how to save the planet, while they themselves drive the gas guzzlers, fly private jets and build homes where no sane person would build a home. Remember, the upside - no more celebrities, the people known for being known!
What decade was that? I've lived here all my life and California has always been subject to massive fires from Santa Ana winds, particularly Malibu which has had major fires twice per decade since the early 1900s.
Of course, now we have a bunch of eco-terrorist arsonists combined with the conservationists that turn over acres and acres of property to the Nature Conservancy and others for "open space" which has helped fuel almost everyone of these fires this year.
It’s not their wealth, it’s their anti-america/anti-Christ attitude that they flaunt openly. Retribution is the word.
I'm checking in from the Tijeras trailer park.
My friend in the Truth or Consequences trailer park was shot in the back 4 times by a tree cop and his family just got $1.5 million from the state as a result.
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