=. PCH closed indefinitely …. The roadway itself damaged in the fire.

=.  Malibu canyon Road closed in the tunnel area.  Kanan Dume open

=. Be ready to evacuate homes in western Malibu … plan on driving out via PCH towards Oxnard. 

=. Dozens of houses burn along Pacific Coast Highway in eastern Malibu.

=. Some homes up Big Rock Mesa have burned … hundreds of houses lost in the Pacific Palisades area of LA.

=  The central business district in the Palisades is largely destroyed … Pali High burned.

=.  Electric service may take a very long time to restore.

=.  Hundreds of emergency power generators in Malibu homes are without fuel this morning.

=.  The Southern California Gas company has turned off the pipe to Malibu. 

=. As predicted, wind gusts topped 80 mph before midnight at the Malibu mountaintops.  

[Editor’s note:  producing live news during a breaking news story means adlibbing and adjusting the script as new information develops.   This script is tentative and not what actually aired.]

Worst Fire In Modern Malibu History Claims Scores Of Houses At East End, Civ Ctr Threatened

Eastern Malibu has burned.

Fire has advanced west as far as Las Flores Canyon.

Homes are burning as far south as the north side of Santa Monica: Chautauqua at Sunset.

There will, however, be a fairly notable drop off in wind speeds late this morning.

The high speed river of air remains over LA County this morning and is fueling a widespread major wind event. The core of this low level jet will slowly move southward during the day and this will cause the winds over LA to slowly decrease.

Since the wind speeds are so high now the slow decrease will not bring the winds down to below warning levels until early evening.

The highest wind gusts have dropped from 86 miles per hour at Upper LAs Flores Canyon.

Mandatory evacuation orders as far west as Corral Creek bridge, including all of the Civic Center area (but not Pepperdine University).

West of Puerco Canyon, all of Malibu should be packed and ready to evacuate.  Plan to leave to the west, up PCH to Oxnard.

The fire has apparently burned as far west as Rambla Pacifico / Las Flores Canyon.  PCH near Gladstones “looks like Lahaina.”

One firefighter and five civilians injured.

Santa Monica has evacuated north of San Vicente Blvd, with voluntary evacuations north of Montana.

PCH closed to all eastbound traffic at Malibu Canyon Road.

Malibu Canyon Road is closed from Malibu to Piuma Road.

Pepperdine cancels all in person classes in both Malibu and Calabasas today.

Law college final exams scheduled fro today are cancelled.

Mandatory evacuation orders as far west as the Corral Creek bridge, including all of the Civic Center area (but not Pepperdine University). 

West of Puerco Canyon, all of Malibu should be packed and ready to evacuate.  Plan to leave to the west, up PCH to Oxnard. 

The fire has apparently burned as far west as Rambla Pacifico / Las Flores Canyon.  PCH near Gladstones “looks like Lahaina.”

One firefighter and five civilians injured.

Santa Monica has evacuated north of San Vicente Blvd, with voluntary evacuations north of Montana.

PCH closed to all eastbound traffic at Malibu Canyon Road.

Westbound traffic is blocked off at the McClure Tunnel.   There is another roadblock on westbound PCH at Channel Road.

Major Crash In Darkness On Kanan Dume

There was a head-on crash on Kanan Dume Road this morning.

The crash was at about 4:45 at the corner of Kanan Dume at Troutdale Road … about 10 miles north ofPCH and 3 miles south of the 101.

One person was critically injured.

There was no fire or smoke in that area at that time.

SCE May Need Needs Days To Restore Power To Unburned Areas

It may take days to restore Southern California Edison Company, electricity to the Malibu area.

Thousands of power poles have burned or been knocked over in the SCE service area… Including the big fires in Malibu and another big fire north of Pasadena.

SCE says 55 thousand electric customers have lost service in 102 separate power outages.

Some of those outages were line failures … some were lines that burned… and some were intentional outages designed to protect the area from ignition. 

Generators Lefty High And Dry As Gas Company Turns Off Flow To Malibu

First it was the electricity that failed.

Now … it appears that natural gas service has stopped in Malibu.

The addition of tens and tens … maybe hundreds of natural gas-powered generators has caused gas pressure to drop in western Malibu.

Water heaters have stopped working.

Emergency generators ar not kicking over.

The Gas Company of Southern California is not able to respond to our request for information. 

It is possible that their pumping stations have been knocked pout of service.

Or … it is possible that natural gas demand has outstripped capacity. 

In years past, the gas company has reassured us, that there is sufficient capacity in the gas main along Pacific Coast Highway to send Malibu as much natural gas as customer desired.

But after other recent major power outages… We have noticed that gas pressure had dropped in Western Malibu to the point where pilot lights went out in entire neighborhoods.

There’s no confirmation on any of this.

All we know for sure is that natural gas fed generators are not operating as intended during the electricity blackout in the Trancas area.

Also … our natural gas fed water heater and forced air heater have both stopped functioning.