(Reuters) – Sheriff deputies in Malibu, California, just north of Los Angeles, were going door to door before the break of dawn on Tuesday ordering people to evacuate as a nearby wildfire rapidly intensified, threatening homes in the beach community.
The brush fire blaze – dubbed the Franklin Fire – forced students at Pepperdine University in Malibu to shelter in place overnight, as it knocked out power and led some students to evacuate to the school’s commons and library.
“Right now, it looks like the bulk of the danger of the fire has passed us. A lot of what surrounds us is just kind of smaller bush fires,” Pepperdine University student Nick Gerding told CNN on Tuesday from the library where he was sheltering in place with what he estimated was some 400 other students.
Evacuation orders were issued in locations across the picturesque coastal city of 10,000 after the fire, which began on Monday night, grew to 1,822 acres (737 hectares), and spread south over the Pacific Coast Highway.
The Los Angeles Fire Department was battling the blaze as county sheriff’s deputies went door to door, urging people to leave their homes. Malibu opened evacuation sites while power was shut off across the city, it said in an online post early on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the area as wind gusts could reach 80 miles (129 km) an hour, describing the situation as “particularly dangerous.”
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bernadette Baum)