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It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy King.
It's five oh three. This is your wake up call for Tuesday, December tenth. I'm Amy King. Wow, what a day. We've got a fire burning in Malibu. It quickly grew to eighteen hundred acres. We're going to focus on that on wake up call today. It's gonna be a little different than we normally do, just because this is affecting
a lot of people. We don't even know how bad the damage is, but we know that houses have burned, we know that people have been evacuated, and we know that the worst of this is not over because these winds, the Santa Ana winds, are blowing and they're going to keep blowing for at least another day. So here's here's a brief recap. Fires exploded in Malibu. Flames have been whipped up by those strong, erratic Santa Ana winds. The
fire is burning in steep terrain uphillsides. People on scene are saying that it is raining ash and embers as the wind whips the flames. Evacuation warnings are in place east of Las Virgins, between Mulholland Highway to the north, Payuma Road to the south, between Stunt Road to the north, and Los Floris to the south, east of Carbon Beach Terrace,
west of Old Malibu Road. In north of Pacific Oast Highway, A shelter has been set up at Palisades Recreation Center at eight five to one Alma Real Drive in Pacific Palisades. About two thousand people are under evacuation orders. Animal shelters have also been set up at Agora Animal Care Center in a Gore Hills and at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.
The winds are blowing. I'm looking at the different fire weather warnings and we've got, of course those red flag warnings because the winds are blowing very strong and humidity is very low. We're expecting winds to be blowing between thirty, forty, even fifty miles per hour, but up to eighty miles per hour are expected in some areas, not necessarily in the Malibu area, but up to eighty miles per hour could happen in the canyons and the passes. So right now,
the fire is the main focus of everything. But these winds are not done and the fire danger is high all across southern California. Who are going to keep you up to date? Will is going to be here. He's got you covered as far as closures around the fire and of course everywhere around the south line as you make your way out and about. And we talked Tim Conway Junior into sticking around.
Yes, look at Amy King. What time did you get I got here at right around eleven thirty, eleven forty something like that.
Oh, you've been on all night?
Yes, yes, breaking news is always you know, time flies.
Yeah, so now bring us up today because you're you've been watching this since it started started about eleven o'clock and it was a small fire burning near Pepperdine University.
Yeah, I got a longer small.
Yeah.
I got a call from my sister who lives out in Malibu, and she said her electricity was out. And I said, why is your electricity? You know, I you want me to run a check out to you? Have you not paid the bill? Is that what's going on? And she said, no, you idiot, I it's the the you know, the PG and E. They shut everybody down.
Instead of paying out these big you know, lawsuits and these big judgments for their lines going down and starting these big fires, they instead just shut everybody's electricity off and so you're out of electricity for you know, three or four days, like we live in you know, some country, yeah, you know, in the nineteen thirties. And I said, that's
that's crazy. And then she said she got a text, because you know, everybody's on this neighborhood watch and you know, house, your family, and you know all these apps that tell you the nosy neighbors, nosy neighbor apps, you know what's going on in your neighborhood. And she said, there's a small fire off a Balu canyon and it was nine acres.
I said, oh, they'll put.
That out pretty quickly. Get a helicopter up there and put that out. It exploded. It went crazy with the San Ana wins, and all of a sudden it was one hundred it was two hundred acres. Every time you checked, it was another one hundred acres. It's now up to nearly nineteen hundred acres. It had crossed pch at some at one point.
Yeah, it cross pch on the sort of the northern flank of the fire, west of Pepperdine University.
Okay, okay, And you remember because you were here, the kids at Pepperdine. You know, a lot of these kids who go to Pepperdine, they're not from southern California, you know, They're from Kentucky or Ohio, or Indiana or Georgia, and they've not seen fires like this. You know, we were born and I was born and raised here. I don't know if amy you were born and raised here. I think you were.
No, I was born here, not raised here.
Okay, okay, okay.
But when you're born and raised here, you have a you know, you have a sort of a mellow vibe to it. Like, you know, the fire department out here is terrific. I would put up La County and La City fires and all these you know, small municipalities. I'd put them up against any firefighters in the world. These guys and gals kick ass. And so you don't panic. You know, you know, these guys have got a plan.
They do a lot of you know, a lot of you know, rehearsal, a lot of teaching, a lot of brush, you know, eradication, a lot of clearance around around the University of Pepperdine I think is the most secure university when it comes to wildfires. They just have you know, they have cleared out more than this is necessary. They're constantly doing drills with LA Fire in La County with LAPD and La County Sheriff's Department as well for active shooters,
and so they calm these kids down. But I'm looking at a picture right now on Channel eleven where there's a shelter in place, and it looks like a lot of the kids are in the library and they look panicked.
Well, yeah, of course they are.
But because the other pictures that we've seen, because all the TV stations have been on this all night along with you, Tim Conny Jr. Is that they're standing in what I'm not sure if it's the library, but they there's a big, huge glass pane and they're looking out to just it's all flames.
It looks like there's smoke in the library, you know. It looks like there's a mild amount of smoke in the library, which is odd.
Yeah, Well, they moved students and staff to the center of campus because they're they're sheltering in place. And the other piece of good news is that Pepperdine officials have put out a note saying the worst of the fire appears to have pushed past campus.
They're still sheltering.
There's still spotfires on campus, but the worst of the fire seems to.
Have pushed past. But there's even better news.
What's that?
No finals today?
I know, no classes today, no finals tomorrow.
No final.
Okay, that is the touchdown for the Conway family.
Touchdown, touchdown, So Tim Conway Junior, if you will stay right there. We do want to get a traffic update from Will. He's gonna let you know about the closures around the fire, and then we're going to come back. We're going to check in with Michael Monks, who's at one of the evacuation centers. We'll be talking to the National Weather Services Andrew Rourke about what we can expect with these wins. It's all coming up on a very modified version of Wake Up Call this morning. Let's say
good morning to Will Cole Schreiber. Will, can you give us the latest on those closures around the fire in Malibu?
Yeah, good morning.
Unfortunately, not a great start obviously in the Malibu area. If you can avoid being anywhere near Malibu, absolutely do it.
Here's what we've got closed.
We've got PCH shutdown between Malibu Canyon Road and Point Magoo. All lanes closed there on Malibu Canyon from PCH to Payuma. Also PCH from Corbon Canyon to Corral and.
Ron Bla Vista to Los Flores.
Bottom line, if you don't need to be up there, avoid the area if you can. It's gonna put extra pressure, of course, on the one oh one. As Tim mentioned earlier, the one on one gets crazy during fires, so people coming out of Ventura County, Thousand Oaks places like that, obviously you can't get through on pchs. That's going to add extra pressure on the one O one as well as the southbound side of the four H five through Sherman Oaks and the Supulvita Pass. Right now, everyone everywhere
else looks pretty good. We don't have any meat issues going on right now, but just be aware it's going to get busy as the day goes on. With Southern California's most accurate traffic reports, I'm Will Coleschreiber.
All right, thank you, Will, and Will's going to be checking in periodically through wake up call to give you the latest on those closures around Malibu and of course other areas as everybody gets out and out and heads out the door for their normal work day. It's always amazing to meet Tim Conway Junior when the fires like this hit, because that's when we start getting calls from all over the country from friends and family who say, are you okay, because all of southern California is on fire.
This is a relatively small fire still, it's just over it's eighteen hundred and twenty two acres. However, it's a devastating fire. We know that some homes have been burned. We are seeing pictures of fire and flame getting really close to some homes that look like they're up on ridgetops that kind of thing, So we know that that's happened. We don't know how the extent of the damage yet, obviously, because the fire is still actively burning. We know that
there are water dropping helicopters. They've been making drops all night. The fixed wing planes haven't taken off yet because they have to wait till sunrise, But as soon as the sunrise comes, we're going to get more assists from the air. We know that there are several strike teams from La City, from La County. Other agencies have sent their fire trucks out to help protect peoples and structures as best they can.
The evacuation warnings again, let's recap those real quick. East of Los Virgins, between Mulholland Highway to the north and Pyoma Road to the south, between Stunt Road to the north and Lost Floris to the south, east of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north of Pacific Coast Highway and to the evacuation order boundary we're going to be hearing from. As I mentioned, Michael, Monks were waiting for him to call in. He's at one of
the evacuation centers. So, Tim, I heard you talking earlier and we were talking about how quickly these fires have been spreading. We've had several of them in the last few years, right, And they're different. Now, we've always had sant Ana wins, but the fires are different.
Yeah, they are different.
When I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, I'm a valley you know, bumpkin from the flats, and and when when I was younger went going to Portola Junior High in in Tarzana. You know, when I was you I'm ten, eleven, twelve years old, and there was a fire that started in Thousand Oaks or west like it would take a day or two with the sant Ana winds to get out to the coast. That's no longer the case now. It's a matter of hours until
it gets out there. And you know, whatever, whatever you know, the cause is, whatever you believe it is, whether it's the you know, the brush that hasn't burned in in sometimes in decades, whether it's the you know, the climate change, whatever,
whatever the the the main culprit is. It's different. It's different now because remember we had we had a we had a fire about six months ago that started on Thousand Oaks and literally got to Malibu in two hours, and it you know, it ran across ten miles in two hours. That means the fire was burning at five miles an hour, which is pretty pretty uh swift for
a fire. And it's just it's just different. So the one saving grace is that this fire that you know that we had three weeks ago, which started in the Newberry Park area that went up into Ventura and Oxnard. If we had another fire like this that started in Thousand Oaks, you'd have been talking about hundreds of homes that it burned towards Malibu. I know that you would report it. And we'd reported earlier that the fire had jumped PCH. But it had jumped PCH down where the
lagoon is. And fortunately there's a lot of you know, shrubbery in that area and not a lot of homes or condos in that area. So I think we're I think we're safe when it comes to that. But they reported earlier that there were no structures that were burned. That was about two and a half or three hours ago. That cannot possibly still be the.
Fact that has changed. That has changed.
Its okay, because we saw Eric Skloor and I Eric who came in overnight. He's the producer and board out for John Colebelt, we personally saw at least two homes burning.
Okay.
Water dropping helicopters are attacking the fire from above. Tankers are expected to join the fight at daybreak. We do know that the fire has destroyed and damaged some homes and structures. We don't yet know the extent of the damage or the number of homes that have burned. Students at Pepperdine University near where the fire started have been
told to shelter in place. Classes and finals have been canceled, Evacuation centers have been set up, and in fact we're going to go out to one of the evacuation centers and check in with Michael Monks at Palisades.
Good morning, Michael, Good morning Amy.
We heard Will Colschreiber just moments ago talk about the open roads, and I can verify that that is true there. The drive from the studio in Burbank out here to the Recreation Center in the Palisades was just totally clear, like the sky is now, and I know that the aircraft who are supporting the fighting of this fire are waiting for that sun to come up so that they can get a.
Better lay of the land.
Meanwhile, here at the Palisades Recreation Center, about a dozen to a dozen and a half cars are here. What's interesting is that right now inside not a lot of folks are hanging out in the shelter. They seem to be spending the time in their cars. A spokesperson for the Red Cross mentioned that this is because right now that's where they're most comfortable. I mean, in a completely disruptive day like a fire, evacuation happening as late as it did, folks are probably hanging on to just a
little bit of comfort. And if that's a sedan, that's what it is right now. But there are a bed set up. They're getting ready to go get some breakfast to bring over to the folks who have evacuated to this particular location, not the only one, but this location has been upgraded to what they call an evacuation center, which means pets and carriers or crates are also welcome, and the larger animals would be brought here, but then taken to Pierce College and Woodland Hills where those larger
animal shelters are available. We're going to continue to monitor the situation here, get in there and talk to some folks about what the experience was like, what their concerns are now, which are probably very obvious. Again, we're waiting for that sun to come up. We were waiting to see what type of damage. I heard you and Tim just talking Amy about surely some structures have been damaged. By now we'll get a better side of that. Literally here very soon.
Yeah, And is it windy where you are?
It is, And I understand that because of the forecast of those Santa Ana winds that maybe they get a little worse when the sun comes up. But it's not so bad right here in the Palisades. I heard one of the forecasts indicate that maybe they won't be as bad today as they were yesterday, but that remains to be seen.
I'll tell you what it is.
It's very cold here in the Palisades, so the folks who are hanging out in their cars are probably just staying warm. Of course, that option is available inside the Palisades Recreation Center as well, and they are about to serve breakfast here momentarily. The same is true over at Pepperdine.
That latest message from the campus in Malibu where students, as you've been reporting all morning, have been staying there in a couple of different buildings that the Pepperdine community quote continues to safely shelter in place, and bowln Nepatite is preparing breakfast to be served shortly at both locations.
Okay, and then I will be very interested once you are able to start talking to some people as they kind of I'm sure everybody is very shell shocked right now because just think getting awake in the middle of the night and said saying, get out. But like, how much time did they have, did they have firefighters knocking on the doors, did they get emergency alerts?
How did they know to leave?
That's what I want to find out. We know that there were instances of firefighters going door to door. I will say that as I pulled up here, and being a member of the media, I try to not get in the middle of everything, you know, when folks are seeking help. So I'm off to the side a bit.
But a woman pulled up and I couldn't even see her husband inside, but he's apparently handicapped, and she was asking for help because you know, they left so quickly, or as quickly as you can with somebody with a disability. She didn't even grab her handicap parking placard. So she was asking me whether she was able to park next to me where I'm a little bit close to the handicap parking and she was worried about getting a ticket.
Yeah, I'm hoping that they don't issue tickets today.
Yeah, I told her they're probably going to be lenient on that today, so she was getting some help from folks inside to assist her husband and getting out of the car into his chair. So you could just get the sense from the woman that.
I spoke to that this was obviously so.
Sudden and very very difficult to just gather what you could, but most importantly your lives and get out of the way of danger.
Yeah, and I think it's going to be a long few days.
As Tim Conway Junior was saying, this Santa Ana wind event is, we're kind of right in the middle of it, and we've got a ways to go because we know the winds are going to be blowing until at least tomorrow. So if you think that winds are going to die down and things are going to ease up, but probably not going to happen just yet.
And Michael, where can you park again without the handicaps thicker and not get a ticket.
If you have been evacuated from Malibu, Tim, I don't think it qualifies for a tired host from.
Burbank and I only being tired and that.
You've put in a lot of powers and you've just been awesome today.
I appreciate it.
Man, You know there's a lot of people in Malibu who live off these unpaved roads, and self service is real spotty right now. I've been trying to I tried to get hold of my sister because some of the towers may have burned down, electricities out. So if you are in Malibu and you've and you've witnessed this firsthand, perhaps you you know you do have self service, you
want to call us here. We'd love to put you on the air and see what your night was like, because I know we watched it on TV, myself, Michael Monks and Amy King, and it was brutal.
But call us here at the radio station.
We'll put you on at one eight hundred five two oh one KFI one eight hundred five to two oh one, five three four. It was a tough night, but you made it, and we want to hear your experience what that was like firsthand. With the winds and the fire in Malibu one eight hundred five to two oh one five three four.
The big fire in Malibu. It has exploded. It started shortly before eleven last night. It's been fanned by strong erratic Santa Anna Wins. The fire has grown to more than eighteen hundred acres. People in the area have said that it has been raining ash and embers as the winds whip the flames. Winds up to eighty miles per hour are expected to blow across the Southland in the canyons and passes. A red flag warning remains in effect for much of southern California. Let's say good morning now
to National Weather Services Andrew Rourke. Andrew, good morning, Thanks for coming on wake up call this morning.
Good morning, yet, how are you doing today?
Well, we're doing okay.
I know there's a lot of people in the Malibu area who are not doing okay. About two thousand homes evacuated. Let's talk about this wind event and what firefighters can expect as they try to get a handle on these flames.
Oh yeah, First of all, the eighty mile par winds are more in the San Gabriel Mountain, so the Belle will not be experiencing anything that strong. However, they will be seeing some wind. Winds right now are about twenty five to thirty five casting to forty five. They'll get a little bit of a bump up a couple hours out of sunrise, maybe five ten miles prow faster than that.
Good news is those winds are only gonna last about noon, and then we're expecting a noticeable decrease in wind speech in the afternoon and overnight, perhaps a little bit of a bump up again tomorrow morning, but not nearly what we're seeing now. So we've got about six seven more hours of really dangerous winds and then we can hope to have a little little less winds. Unfortunately, these super
low humidities are allowing that fires to grow. Also are not going away, so we have two more days of red flag warnings due to low humidities.
Okay, so Andrew, when you say that the winds are expected to die down around noon or so, is that specifically for the Malibu area or is that for the entire area that's under red flags.
It is for the entire area for the red flag. But you know, since the Malibu areas area primary concern, that's where we're that's what we're focusing on, and so that's where the winds really need to come down. But yes, the whole area will be down and they'll decrease the fire danger for any new new fire starts that might occur. So really looking forward to getting these next seven hours out of the way and getting the little bit safer conditions.
You're not the only one. So the question for you, Andrew two, is these winds.
We talk about how they're whipped up by or the flames are whipped up by the winds. Are these winds blowing in one direction or do they change direction?
Oh? No, they well, they around the fire. They they vary a little bit, but mostly the Santa Ana winds for the La Valleys and the Ventura Coast and valleys there northeasterly, the canyons on the Santa Monicas and above above Malibu or all north south canyons, so those change the direction to a more northerly wind. So the Malibu fire area they're going to be seeing northerly winds throughout the day, really not varying that much in direction at all.
Okay, and then we've talked about how we're expecting some of those higher gusts and you said they're probably going to be in the San Gabriel. But when you talk about those canyons, don't the winds go like they kind of become like wind tunnels?
Right? Yeah, the canyons do focus the winds and really accelerate them, which is why when you're like hiking in Pantamnica's into you're near a canyon, you might experience it quite a windy day, and then you go a few hundred feet away from them and the winds are very calm. So yeah, Antuty, California. The winds are very very specific to general areas, not not widespread sometimes.
Okay, So we're gonna hold on because we've got about six seven more hours and then a little bit of die down. Hopefully when the winds die down, that's going to let firefighters get a handle on this fire, which has grown considerably just since I got here two hours ago. So Andrew Rourke with the National Weather Service, thank you so much for your time and information this morning.
We appreciate it.
No problem, Thanks a lot.
Okay, let's get back to the update on the fire. Mandatory evacuations are ordered in Malibu as a strong winds pull the wildfire. It started in Malibu Canyon and burned toward the coast near Pepperdine. It's burned more than eighteen hundred acres since about eleven o'clock last night. At Pepperdine, students and staff were told to shelter in place in the center of campus. PCH is closed between Tipanga Canyon
Boulevard and Corral Canyon Road. The fire has moved quickly because the brush is so dry, and as Andrew was just telling us, we've got very low humidity and high winds and that makes for a potentially explosive situation. Some homes have reportedly been damaged or destroyed, and we don't know the extent of the damage that I'm sure we're going to find out more as the sun comes up. This man lives in the area. He said he had to leave his home.
We've been out here about nineteen years and through a couple of these fires, and it's you know, we just need more support up here. You know, we're seeing a lot of fire engine trucks coming in and out of here, but not a lot of them local. They don't know the terrain up here.
In the Walter Thorpe tells KTLA that access is limited, visibil is poor. He also says communication has been difficult because the power is out in some areas. As Tim mentioned, he got a call from his sister and power had been turned off last night and that was before the winds really even start started blowing. Wanted to bring Tim Conway Junior back in because he's been on the air all night and following this and this fire started very small, but boy has it grown and quickly.
Yeah, and you know they're waiting for as soon as that sun comes up. And I'm looking out the window right now, we're probably about that twenty minutes maybe twenty five minutes way.
This is a good time that we're on standard time, so it's getting it's getting lighter earlier now.
Yeah, that's right. But you're going to see planes coming out of Van Eyes. You're also going to see the Anlo Valley, Lancaster and Palmdale. You're going to see these fixed wings come up. They're going to take off the moment that they're going to see any daylight, and then you're going to get an unbelievable amount of assistance to try to knock this down before we get the major winds between nine thirty and ten thirty this morning.
Yeah, and Tim, you you're familiar with the area.
You're born, born and raised and someone when when I was coming in listening to you talk about, well, there's the windy's over there.
And there's the McDonald's over there.
That's right.
But so many areas of Malibu are affected on this. I know that the City of Malibu issued an emergency alert that the fire had spread south of PCH in some areas, and it looks like it's approach. It's really close to PCH on the southern flank of the fire looks like it has crossed PCH. On the northern flank. It's threatened. It says that Malibu Pier has been threatened, Malibu Road, Malibu Knowles, and Sweetwater Mesa, So all of those areas are threatened.
Yeah, that's where the creek comes out, you know, Malibu Creek comes out into the ocean, and that's where the shrubbery had burned there, you know, just across from the you know, all all the shops there. You know you can buy I don't know, dream catchers, whatever you're buying in Malibu nowadays. But it's it's very scary for the people live out there because once you know the fire, does you know if it did jump over PCH and it burned Malibu Road, there are very.
Few ways you're gonna see. You would see a lot of people.
It would turn into a Lahaina type fire where you know, the road Alabou Road would have been congested very quickly and you would you would have seen people jump in the ocean and try to get away from this fire.
It would have been a huge disaster.
Well.
And the flames from this fire again, the just watching the TV stations, I mean, the flames look like they're forty fifty feet to.
Oh shure, sure, yeah, absolutely.
And now you're seeing, you know, it's about twenty minutes to six, you're now seeing the winds pick up. And if you're watching this on channel four, channel five, you're seeing the winds start to whip this fire again. And I think we're in for a second bout here, I really do.
Well.
Yeah, as Andrew Rourke just told us, the winds are expected to blow very strong until about noon and then hopefully they're going to die down a little bit. And Tim, do you know, I know that you were talking to your friend, the retired LA Fire.
That's right, Captain Steve Kreger, Right.
Steve Kreeger, and he was talking about how they're getting such a great response from so many different areas, but if the winds are blowing too strong, that also hampers firefighting efforts because it makes it harder for the planes and the helicopters to fly.
Right.
He pointed out that you know, just because you see news helicopters up there, doesn't mean these planes can fly. Because the news helicopters are up there, you know, one thousand, two thousand, sometimes even three or four thousand feet and the winds aren't that radical. But down low where you have the you know, these fires make their own winds sometimes, and you have these thirty forty fifty mile an hour
gus whipping through the canyon. It makes it very dangerous, especially for the fixed wing you know aircraft that come
through there. And so as long as the winds don't kick up, to see a you know, maybe ten aircraft come out of Van Eyes and Low Valley, they're going to come out of Palmdale, they're going to come out of Lancaster, and it's only a quick ten minute flight from either Van Eyes, maybe a fifteen minute flight from a Low Valley to Malibu and try to knock this this out pretty quickly, hopefully.
Yeah, it's amazing to watch the fire fighting.
It's great.
Helicopters and the planes.
Do their never get tired of watching it.
Yeah, we had a fire. I think it was burning up north of the one thirty four a few years ago. It might have been during the pandemic, because I was at home in the middle of the day for some reason, and they were they're bringing the helicopter in and they were scooping water out of a silver like reservoir.
Oh, that's great.
And so you'd hear this, you'd hear the chopper, and then you'd see it and then it would skim the surface and just suck up all that water and then off it would go, and then about ten minutes later it'd be back again. And it was just one of the most amazing things that the skill of these the pilots that are flying creditlines.
It's really cool to watch, especially if you're a you know, you're you're an adrenaline junkie and you see these planes come down and they're you know, three inches above the water. They dip down to the water and then take off. It's a very very skilled job, you know, to be able to fly with you know, sometimes twenty thousand pounds worth of water or fase check and release it and then have to compensate for that much, you know, that much weight leaving the aircraft immediately.
It's very, very skilled.
Absolutely.
Okay, let's give a quick update on the evacuation warnings in place east of Los Virginess between Maulholland Highway to the north, Payuma Road to the south, between Stunt Road to the north and Lost Florists to the south. East of Carbon Beach Terrace, west of Old Malibu Road, north of Pacific Coast Highway. A shelter has been set up at Palisades Recreation Center. We heard from Michael Monks who was there just a few minutes ago. That's at eight
five to one Alma Real Rive in Pacific Palisades. Michael told us that people seem to be sort of hunkering in their cars as opposed to heading into the shelter. That's probably your comfort zone at this point because a lot of people got a very rude awakening overnight. Also, you can take small animals in carriers and such to the shelter at Pacific Sorry Palisades Recreation Center. If you have larger animals, a Gora Animal Care Center in a
Gora Hills and also Pierce College in Woodland Hills. You know, It's always interesting because, as Tim Conway Junior and I were talking a little bit earlier, when you hear there's a fire, and we're all focused on it because it's doing such an incredible devastation and it's so powerful, and we've got two thousand people who have been evacuated from their homes, and the wind is blowing and the fire is completely burning out of control with no it's not
surrounded at all. You get calls from people who live in other areas and they say, oh my gosh, all of southern Califournia is on fire. It might appear like that, it's really just over eighteen hundred acres At last check, I believe it's still at eight they're estimating at eighteen twenty two, at very good chance that it's spread beyond that. At this point, we'll get you updates as we get more updates, but it does seem all encompassing, so then you have to tell all your friends, no, we're okay.
So for most of you in southern California, this might not be directly affecting you. And even the winds that are blowing in Malibu, they're gusting about twenty five thirty five miles an hour, and when I came in dead still at my house, no winds at all. But we are expecting those Santa Ana wins to be blowing for the next six seven hours before we get a bit of a break. So here's a quick update on the fire. It's burned more than eighteen hundred acres. As I mentioned,
it's burning toward the south. It started near Pepperdine University last night shortly before eleven. Now the people at Pepperdine and the students and staff have told to shelter in place where houses were evacuated, but at Pepperdine they said, nope, stay where you are. They've kind of gathered at the center of campus, and Pepperdine put out a statement not too long ago saying that it appears that the worst of the fire had pushed past campus, although they're still
experiencing some spotfires and that kind of thing. The fire has destroyed and damaged some structures. We don't know the extent of the damage yet. We have water dropping helicopters that have been making air drops on the fire this evening or actually not this evening, but overnight, and then when sunrise happens that's when the tankers are going to start loading up and they'll assist from the air and hopefully help firefighters on the ground get a handle on this.
We've got those dangerous Santa Ana wins expected to blow up to fifty miles per hour in the valleys and Inland Empire, also in Ventura County along the coast, and in Malibu gus over eighty miles per hour are possible in some of the canyons and pass areas. I want to tell you that Malibu Canyon from pch to Mulholland
is closed. To Penga Canyon is closed. The interesting part of that is that it was already closed because they were anticipating the winds, they were anticipating the high fire danger, and so they said, you know what, let's just close that right now. So that has been closed. The evacuation orders for Perco Canyon to Tunia Canyon, Trunks Canyons, the Sarah Retreat. So again, about two thousand people are out of their homes. We have Tim Conway Junior with us. He's been covering this all night, all.
Night, all night. I can't wait.
Now.
The sea one.
Thirties are fired up they're coming out of van Eyes, they're coming out of Anlo valley, and they are going to be taking off the moment that they see any kind of light, and they are going to be bringing their C one thirties and put this sucker out by the way.
It's seven a m.
The La County Sheriff's Department going to do a live press conference from Malibu. We will carry that live here on k f I.
Okay, one of the interesting things, Tim, that we've been seeing is this fire that you know, they never it doesn't burn in a.
In a straight line.
It's right, you know, the winds change and the fire changes and it races uphill. But then and when you were talking to your friend, You've got to remind me of his name again, I didn't write it, Steve Greeger. He was talking about how the winds are actually pushing the flames down the hillside as opposed to up the
hillside as they would normally wild. Yeah, and then and then watching all the different news chairs and watching this fire, it's like there's a huge area of fire and then there's nothing darkness, and then another huge area of fire. And as we were saying, the winds are blowing those embers. That's what becomes so dangerous is the embers can carry up to like a mile or two away, and so that's probably why we're seeing so many little tiny flowers.
And that just makes it more difficult because if the firefighters are on the line, then all of a sudden, you got a new line two miles away, right.
And I don't understand why they still allow these big palm trees to grow in these areas. They become Roman candles, they light on fire, they burn for hours, and embers travel up to two miles away and they start spot fires all over the place. I don't understand why those trees aren't illegal. But I can't wait, amy, I mean, we are probably a half hour. I keep looking out
the window for some light. We are probably a half hour, and these guys are already to explode into Malibu with the C one thirties and perhaps you know, six seven eight of them flying in in Unison out of an eyes analoe valley, and really, and you're going to notice a huge different if they can get up and take off in the wind, and before you know, the winds
really kick in. Between nine thirty and ten thirty which will be the witching hour, and that's where we'll see a tremendous increase in these winds.
Yeah.
And then as we talked to Andrew Rourke and he said that we are expecting that increase in the winds and they're going to continue. But then there they are expected to die down this afternoon, which is good. We still have the red flag warnings in effect for much of southern California, of course, including Malibu, but the winds are supposed to die down. They might pick up again tomorrow for a while. So the fire danger isn't over.
The red flag warnings are going to be in effect, but we might get a little bit of a break hopefully.
Yeah, and you can see it if you're watching, you know, I'm watching some of the local news stations here. And Steve Krieger again, a buddy of mine who's with La County Fire, retired captain. He said, he's been fire, you know, he's been retired for a couple of years now, but spent forty years with.
La County Fire.
He's fought in these sant Ana winds where you know, you literally have a hose and you're trying to put out a fire. And you're pointing at north as the winds are coming out of the north and it's doing nothing but spraying you in the face. So it's very challenging out there. When you have rough terrain, you've got these big palm trees, and you have the sant Ana winds. It's almost impossible to put these fires out.
Yeah, and the fires they're so quick and move so erratically. I know that we've also seen some pictures of there. It appeared there was a house that was up on like a hilltop. Yeah, why wouldn't you want to build a beautiful house on the rolltop and have these beautiful panoramic views of the ocean and southern California. And the flames were like two hundred feet away and rushing up
the mountain side. At that point, you just have to well, one, get out right and hope that you did as much as you can to prepare your homes for that kind of right fire.
And they always talk about really, you know, the ready, set go. You know that that's thing like you to learn as a child. But they teach us, you know, over and over, ready, set go, get your stuff, ready, get set, And when the fire department or the cops tell you to go get the hell out.
You can always rebuild, exactly.
And about two thousand people have been told to get the hell out, that's right. So they're headed hopefully to the event that evacuation center where Michael Monks is in Palisades at the Where did I say, at the evacuation center at Palisades?
Right, But these winds are kicking up. If you're watching TV, if you're listening to a KFI, you can hear it, you can feel it. These winds are starting to kick up.
And they're expected to continue for quite a while. And as as Tim said, as soon as the sun comes up, the planes are going to be up and they're going to give an assist to the firefighters on the ground and the water dropping helicopters that have been work all night long. We're going to keep you updated here on KFI all morning with the latest on the closures. We do have a live press conference coming up the La
County Sheriff's Department is going to be in Malibu. That's happening in just about an hour, and of course we'll bring you that live. We know there's a lot going on around the Southland. We're focusing on Malibu because that's where the immediate danger is if you can stay away from that area. Of course, stay away from that area, and as I mentioned, we will bring you the latest. Thank you Tim Conway Junior for being on all night.
We're gonna let you maybe go take a nap before you have to come back and be on the air again this afternoon, and I would imagine you'll be talking about the fire once again. This is KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles, Orange County Southland Weather from KFIS. So we've been talking about those red flag warnings are in effect for high fire danger with gus up to about fifty miles per hour. Winds of eighty miles per hour with even higher gusts are possible in the canyons
and passes. It's going to be sunny, highs in the low seventies at the beaches Metro LA and inland O c sixties to low seventies in the valleys, and Ie just forties and fifties in the Antelope Valley. It'll become cloudy tomorrow with highs in the sixties to low seventies and then cooler.
Thursday and Friday.
We lead local live from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom for producer and technical producer Kno and traffic specialist Will.
I'm Amy King.
This has been your wake up Call, and if you missed any of wake Up Call, you can listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to wake Up Call with me, Amy King. You can always hear wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI Am six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.