Wildfire destroys homes near Malibu Nov 24, 2007

[Wrightwood]

A fast-moving wildfire has destroyed about 35 homes and spread through the canyons and hills above Malibu, California, today, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate.

[Wrightwood]

2200 acres at this time - has bumped across PCH

[Wrightwood]

Overnight camping at Corral Canyon:

http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/perspectives/2007/2007-01-18-camping.htm

[Wrightwood]

23 aircraft
1,700 fire fighters

[Wrightwood]

Malibu Wildfires

10/26/1929 - Malibu Colony, 13 homes burned.

1930 - "Potrero," Decker Canyon Road Corridor, 15,000 acres, accidental blaze caused by walnut pickers in Thousand Oaks area.

10/23/1935 - "Malibu" or "Latigo/Sherwood," Kanan/Decker Corridor, 30,000 acres.

11/23/1938 - "Topanga," Topanga Canyon, 14,500 acres.

10/20/1943 - "Las Flores," Malibu Canyon, 5,800 acres.

11/6/1943 - "Woodland Hills (Las Virgenes)," Kanan/Decker Corridor, 15,000 acres.

12/26/1956 - "Newton," Kanan/Decker Corridor, 26,000 acres, 100 homes, one death, Frank Dickover.

12/2/1958 - "Liberty," Malibu Canyon, 18,000 acres, eight firefighters injured, 74 homes destroyed (17 in Corral Canyon).

11/6/1961 - "Topanga," Topanga Canyon, 8,000 acres.

9/25/1970 - "Wright," Malibu Canyon, 28,000 acres, 10 deaths, 103 homes destroyed.

10/30/1973 - "Topanga," Topanga Canyon, 2,800 acres.

10/23/1978 - "Kanan," Kanan/Decker Corridor, 25,000 acres, 2 deaths, 230 homes.

10/09/1982 - "Dayton," Malibu Canyon Corridor, 44,000 acres, 15 homes in Paradise Cove destroyed.

10/14/1985 - "Piuma," Las Flores area, Topanga Canyon, 4,700 acres.

10/14/1985 - "Decker," Kanan/Decker Corridor, 6,600 acres. Both arson-caused; six homes destroyed; $1 million damage.

11/2/1993 - "Old Topanga Fire," Topanga Canyon Corridor, at the time "the largest deployment of firefighters in the history of California," 3 civilian deaths, 565 firefighters injured (five in Malibu), 16,800 acres burned, 369 homes (268 in Malibu) destroyed. $219 million damage.

10/28/1996 - "Calabasas," Malibu Canyon Corridor, Brush fire ignited by arcing power line, 13,000 acres; 10 houses destroyed.

1/6/2003 - "Pacific," began near Pacific Coast Highway near Broad Beach, 759 acres, three homes damaged. Possibly sparked by power lines. Evacuations in Encinal and Decker canyons. Fires in Latigo and Corral canyons burned 20 acres.

1/8/2007 - "Malibu Road," began at Malibu Bluffs State Park, 20 acres burned, five homes destroyed, six damaged. Speculated cause, "discarded smoking materials." $60-$100 million damage.

10/21/2007 - "Canyon" Fire - 4,565 acres burned; three firefighters injured; six homes destroyed (four within city limits); 15 homes damaged; 2,100 residents evacuated.

Sources: Los Angeles County Fire Department; California Coastal Commission; The Malibu Times, Los Angeles Times; "Burn Malibu Burn," Michael Davis; LA Weekly Nov. 15-21, 1996;" The Malibu," W.W. Robinson and Lawrence Clark Powell, 1958; "Malibu Diary," Penelope Grenoble O'Malley, 2004; "My Fifty Years in Malibu," Dorothy Stotsenberg, 2005; malibucomplete.

[Wrightwood]

5 Arrests To Be Made In Corral Fire Arson Case
 
Sheriff Lee Baca will soon announce the imminent arrests of five people connected to the Corral fire in Malibu last month.
Arrest warrants have been issued for five young men for involvement in Corral Fire arson case. Eight firefighters were injured.

[Chesslike]

[lagomorphmom]

I guess once in awhile you just gotta love people being litter bugs, eh?

[RobertW]

Malibu Fire Camp, Corral Fire November 2007 Video:

L.A. County Fire dispatch comms:

The video has some important information right at the start. "Command 8" was linked to LA County Blue 3 and the tech stated what all the frequencies were. He said Command 8 had a receive of 169.5375 and a transmit of 164.7125. This confirms that the National Incident Support Cache now has more than 7 command frequencies and that the additional frequencies are probably all 12.5 KHz splits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnA5iH6J9Ig

[Wrightwood]

Judge Denies Corral Fire Suspects' bail request

Judge Denies Corral Fire Suspects' Request To Be Released
Two men suspected of accidentally starting a destructive wildfire in Malibu were denied Friday a request to be released on their own recognizance while awaiting trial.

William Thomas Coppock, 23, and Brian David Franks, 27, of Los Angeles, are charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing fire to inhabited structures in connection with the Nov. 24 Corral Fire that destroyed 53 houses and severely damaged another 23.

Dean Allen Lavorante, 19, and Eric Matthew Ullman, 18, both of Culver City, and Brian William Anderson, 22, of Los Angeles, face the same charges. They are free on bail.
All five also face an allegation that the crimes were committed "during and within an area of a state of emergency."They are accused of going to a cave and notorious party spot on state park land overlooking Malibu to drink beer with girls and light a campfire when the area was under a Red Flag warning because of high winds and low humidity.

Instead of a routine bail hearing Friday on whether the two men were risks to the community if freed while awaiting trial, Judge Michael K. Kellogg laid out the prosecution's case against all five suspects."There is nothing to show me that there wasn't this callousness and a high level of carelessness," Kellogg said. "And all the sorries in the world don't change that."Kellogg rejected requests by attorneys for the two men that they be released on their own recognizance.

However, the judge noted that according to sheriff's reports, Franks had at least tried to put out some of the fire and lowered his bond to $100,000.Coppock's bail was reduced by $10,000 due to an earlier math error, to $230,000, and his attorney said he would post bail later Friday.
The judge said he spent a great deal of time reviewing the investigative reports and noted that the allegation of causing a fire during a state of emergency requires a sentence of prison time.
He said investigators believe that Anderson, Coppock and Franks stole packages of precut firewood from the Ralphs supermarket in Malibu and added that wood to a small campfire already started in the cave by Lavorante and Ullman.

The first two men apparently left the cave after the arrival of the other men, who allegedly drank 18 to 30 cans of beer and some other liquor.Investigators believe Anderson kicked burning logs out of the cave and into surrounding brush and told Frank to put it out, according to a sheriff's report read by one of the attorneys."Anderson kicked a burning log out of the cave and said, 'Here, put this out,'" Goldstein said. "Guys were laughing."

Anderson has already been released on $240,000 bail.
Earlier, the attorneys said their clients are being made scapegoats and that instead of starting the fire, they tried to put it out. The three Los Angeles men will next face a preliminary hearing Jan. 7 in Van Nuys. The Culver City teenagers will be arraigned there Feb. 14.