There’s nothing like the imminent threat of wildfire to make other worries recede into the background. The Franklin Fire ignited around 11 pm on the night of December 11, in Malibu Canyon and burned more than 4000 acres, destroying twenty structures—including nine homes—and damaging 28 buildings, including 14 single family homes and one multi-family home.
The power was already off throughout many parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, including Malibu, when the fire began to spread. During the chaotic first 24 hours of the emergency the fire spread swiftly on multiple fronts. On the eastern edge, there was a very real risk that the fire would cross Piuma and burn into Las Flores Canyon and on to Saddle Peak and Fernwood in Topanga. On the western side, flames quickly spread towards Corral and Latigo canyon.
Residents were in the dark and cell service was limited or non-existent. Watching fire crawl over the hills in the pitch darkness is surreal. There is a beauty and fascination that is simultaneously hypnotic and terrifying, but this wasn’t an incident like the devastating 2018 Woolsey Fire.
The Franklin fire ignited much closer to the coast than the Woolsey fire, and the winds were more localized and not as strong. Fire crews were able to get in front of it and keep it from houses. Almost all of the losses occurred during the first chaotic hours of the fire. Even though the fire made it to the coast in two locations and burned almost up to the doorstep of the El Nido community in Corral Canyon and the homes above Carbon Canyon, no houses were lost there. It helped that there were no other major wildfires in the state at the time.
Aid poured in from as far away as Fresno and Sonoma. On the ground, crews armed with hand tools and trackers cut fire breaks in the pitch dark. As soon as the sun came up, the fixed wing firefighting craft and jumbo helicopters were up, delivering water and Phos-Check to the front lines. Paramount Ranch became the helicopter station for fire retardant. Water dropping helicopters tanked up at 69 Bravo, and at the wastewater recycling pond at Pepperdine University’s Malibu Campus, where anxious students were ordered to shelter in place, the flames surrounding the buildings. The fixed-wing “super scooper” aircraft came in low over Point Dume and Paradise Cove, scooping up water in the bay. The small, maneuverable Firehawk helicopters worked day and night, making run after run.
By the second day, the winds had diminished and the fire was no longer spreading, but containment would take a long time. The heart of the burn zone was rugged canyon terrain that hadn’t burned in the Woolsey Fire. The fire still hadn’t been fully contained when the winds returned, fanning new fears.
Wildfires are exhausting. The waiting and anxiety while evacuation zones are announced and updated, the power outages and the smell of smoke, the glow of fire in the distance at night, and the struggle to find out what’s going on, where the fire is headed, take a toll on everyone. It’s one of the prices of living in the Santa Monica Mountains. For the people who lost their homes, it was a big price, but at least no one was killed this time, or even badly injured.
Fire officials credited home hardening and fire clearance for helping to save homes, but a lot of what prevented the Franklin Fire from being worse than it was is simply luck: luck that the weather changed and the wind dropped, luck that there wasn’t another, bigger fire somewhere else and that this incident was able to receive a fast and extensive response.
This wasn’t the first December fire in the Santa Monica Mountains.In 1956, the Newton-Hume-Sherwood Fire ignited on Christmas day. This fire complex burned a total of 42,000 acres—27,000 acres in the Malibu area. It spread across a wide swath of the Western Santa Monica Mountains, reaching the sea at Broad Beach in Malibu. It destroyed one hundred houses and caused one death.
The Liberty Canyon fire began on December 2, 1958. It raced through Malibu Canyon and into Corral Canyon, burning 18,000 acres. Eight firefighters were injured, and 74 homes destroyed. When fire broke out in Malibu on December 4, 1903, there were no fire crews or air support. The fire burned unchecked until the weather changed. Homes were lost in the Franklin Fire, but far fewer than in other incidents.
“To live with the Santa Ana, is to accept consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior,” wrote Joan Didion in 1968. She knew. She lived in Malibu during several major fires.
Despite the loss of homes, Malibu was lucky on December 9, and so are its neighbors. A shift in the wind, a roll of the cosmic dice, and the outcome could have been very different for all of us in the Santa Monica Mountains.
One thing that made a big difference for residents in the burn zone was the presence of volunteer firefighters, who put on their gear and headed for the front lines as soon as the fire was reported. During the Woolsey Fire, many of these men came together as the Point Dume Bombers to save the homes of neighbors and entire neighborhoods. Then, they were armed with just hand tools, a water truck and some walkie-talkies, but they made a difference. Their efforts have led to the creation of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Community Brigade pilot program. This non-profit organization provides volunteer firefighters with training.
During the Franklin Fire, members of the Community Brigade helped evacuate residents, put out spot fires, and save houses. They are still working in the aftermath of the fire to help residents with clean-up the mess. They’ll be here next time, too, and as the program grows, they hope it will spread to all of our high fire risk communities.
As TNT prepares to go to press, the fire is now 89 percent contained. There could be no greater blessing or gift for this holiday season.
The Community Brigade gladly accepts donations to help fund the purchase of fire fighting equipment. Volunteers are also welcome to apply: https://laepf.org/community-brigade-pilot-program
Throughout the Franklin Fire, and the closures of Topanga Canyon Blvd, TCEP—the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness has been there, monitoring the situation, pushing out notifications and information. If the fire had spread into the canyon, TCEP volunteers would have been spearheading the evacuation process and making sure residents stayed safe. They, too, are a volunteer non-profit, and they need donations and volunteers to continue to keep the canyon safe. https://tcep.org
For practical advice on what Topangans can do to reduce wildfire risk, check out the Elephant in the Canyon, an editorial by Keegan Gibbs, a Topanga resident who is one of the leaders of the Community Brigade. https://topanganewtimes.com/2023/09/22/the-elephant-in-the-canyon/
