Malibu Residents Begin To Return
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
MALIBU, Calif. — Residents began making their way through back streets and dirt roads yesterday afternoon into evacuated areas of this upscale community to see whether their homes survived a wind-driven wildfire that scorched surrounding brush-covered hills. Some homes along a road near the source of the blaze had been reduced to blackened wrecks, while others were barely damaged.
Fifty homes were destroyed Saturday by the fast-moving wildfire, pushed by Santa Ana winds. Twenty-seven other homes were damaged, and 10,000 to 14,000 people remained under evacuation orders.
The fire, which scorched 4,720 acres — more than 7 square miles — since early Saturday, was about 40% contained, with few flames visible to water-dropping helicopters, the Los Angeles County fire inspector, Ron Haralson, said.
