MRCA Faulted For Fire Danger At Movie Permits

Controversy continues over that movie being shot in Malibu’s Puerco Canyon,

Fire trucks .. two of them … raced to the canyon yesterday when smoke … a lot of smoke .. was seen coming down the hills.

It was a movie shoot … a movie being shot apparently without county film permits.

A county film permit would mean the fire department would be at the scene … with n observer … to head off false reports of fire.

Malibu city councilman Jefferson Wagner says the whole problem is that the MRCA … which owns the land… has set itself up as a film permit agency.

And the MRCA did not require a fire observer.

NEWSCUT 77651 WAGNER RESP QQQ ITS A NON EMERGENCY

“He could have called with his radio … because they have a dispatch radio in their hand .. on the set and said its just smoke it;’s a non emergency.

The city councilman says it is state fire marshal policy that a movie permit be issued would requirements that firefighters be alerted in advance … something the MRCA apparently is not doing.

NEWSCUT 77650 WAGNER RESP 222 QQQ COMMUNICATE AHEAD OF TIME

“You pull a permit with L A COunty Fire … because it’s special effects related … and I do this all the time .. and you get assigned a fireman … he has a radio to the local station … he has the phone number to the local station … and they communicate ahead of time.”

The city of Malibu announced late yesterday that it had issued a permit to the movies set … which is using property owned by the city with in city limits to access the actual set.

The set is just outside city limits on Park land owned by the MRCA.

And even though MRCA has set itself up as a film permitting agency … LA County Regional Planning has reportedly told the parks agency it needs to coordinate that activity with the LA County film permitting process … including L-A county fire department review.

The city says there will be smoke visible from the movie set this morning.

We can only assume that the county fire department has been notified.