Tell ’em ‘no way!’

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Overnight camping and campfires in Malibu? Yes, a distinct possibility even though virtually every day is a red flag day in our beautiful city. For those of you who missed the City Council meeting, let me recap. The Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy asked for overnight camping, ergo campfires, in tiny Ramirez Canyon. A major flap ensued with lawsuits back and forth between the conservancy and the city.

Enter our city attorney who, after some brilliant brainstorming with herself, delivered a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) trading Ramirez for Charmlee Park. In all, 27 residents, most of whom lost their homes in fires at least once and sometimes twice, along with docents from Charmlee, spoke against this portion of the MOU. Note also that Charmlee is dedicated to passive recreation only. The City Council members, fresh from a fire that destroyed five homes just over a week ago, voted to proceed with the negotiations ignoring the residents’ pleas against this ridiculous proposal. What are they sniffing besides smoke?

Interestingly, a speaker who is a Malibu historian noted that a campfire started the very first recorded fire in Malibu in 1903, which also destroyed homes. In fact, humans start 80 percent of wildfires.

What next? Since my home also burned in 1978, and my husband and I have many animal lives at stake on our property, I’ll be using all my public relations power by engaging my friends in the media, home insurers, the governor and anyone else who sees the frightening consequences of this potential time bomb. Join the protest with me and send me your thoughts. stellem@tellem.com.

Susan Tellem