Countless residents, city workers and business owners pitched in to help, while firefighters and emergency personnel battled fires and conducted evacuations.
By Melonie Magruder, Jonathan Friedman and Laura Tate / The Malibu Times
Tales of heroic efforts and last stands are coming to light, and help from within Malibu and beyond are pouring in as residents, returning home after evacuation, or reemerging from the burnt, smoky Malibu terrain, begin to take stock of the damage of the Malibu Canyon Fire.
One tale of heroism came from Malibu resident Michael Higgins who witnessed his friend Kirby Kotler, an Arson Watch volunteer and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Disaster Service Worker, in action, urging the last of evacuees from a condominium complex to vacate their car that got stuck on a median of Pacific Coast Highway, just before it burst into flames.
According to eyewitnesses, Kotler was on his way Sunday morning to Malibu Presbyterian Church, which was on fire, when he encountered heavy smoke and flames blowing across Civic Center Way just south of the Mason De Ville condominium complex. He continued through the smoke, trying to reach the church and encountered a resident at the condominium who told him several residents of the complex were confused on what to do and had not yet evacuated, and that the back of the complex was under attack by the fire. Kotler immediately drove into the complex and escorted a caravan of evacuees out of harms way by directing them onto Pacific Coast Highway, over the center divider and into the southbound lanes, away from the fire. Seconds after the last car headed to safety, Kotler rendered assistance to another motorist who had attempted to evacuate northward on the highway through a wall of flames only to have his engine stall. Kotler noticed smoke coming from the engine compartment and immediately instructed the occupant and his son (and dog) to exit the vehicle … seconds later the car was fully engulfed in flames.
“I believe that Kirby’s disregard for his own personal safety saved the lives of more than one person that day and I think that he should be recognized and commended for his heroic service to the community,” Higgins wrote in an e-mail to The Malibu Times.
Sticking it out to help
While emergency workers and volunteers were fanning out across the city to help with evacuation efforts, many city, public health, business owners and employees stayed to offer help in any way.
Jena Chanel works for the city and was evacuated from her home early Sunday.
“All my balcony furniture was burned,” she said. “But they seem to have it contained there now. The hills above my apartment were just aglow!”
Despite the fire coming so close, Chanel was at work in her Malibu office on Monday. “We don’t have any electricity, so we are using candles and I’m talking to you on my cell phone,” she said.
Dr. Dean Graulich, head veterinarian at Malibu Coast Animal Hospital on Pacific Coast Highway, arrived at the facility at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. With help from Dr. Frank Lavac, a Malibu resident with a practice in Santa Monica, he gathered the 67 animals boarded there into trucks. Within an hour and a half, they had them loaded and then shuttled to Graulich’s house and to Sherman’s Place.
“I’m sleeping with four dogs on top of me,” Graulich said.
The pets’ owners have been picking up the animals from his home.
Sherman Baylin, owner of Sherman’s Place, said she was impressed Graulich and Lavac’s good thinking.
“They were just boom, we’re on it, that’s a testament to them,” Baylin said.
At one point Sunday morning it was being reported that the animal hospital had burned down.
“That was crazy,” Graulich said. “I was on hold with Channel 7 and I hear ‘State of the art facility just rebuilt in 2004 burned down.’ It was awful, because they said very specific things about the hospital, and I was really nervous [that it had burned down].”
The newly refurbished Malibu Beach Inn opened its doors, free to fire fighters, and to local evacuees at a steep discount. U-Haul Corporation is offering free storage for a month to people who had to flee burning homes with belongings. Richard Chesterfield of Monrose Catering opened his kitchen on Pacific Coast Highway to firefighters and other emergency personnel in the area who are in need of a meal.
“I’ve got a big pot of lentil soup on,” said Peter Hugo, who works with Chesterfield, on Monday.
Ralphs grocery store at Malibu Colony Shopping Plaza on Malibu Road remained open and had dedicated a checkout counter to fire and emergency personnel. Les Wiggins of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Pacific Coast Highway near the Malibu Pier was handing out chicken for emergency personnel.
E-mails and instant messages flew back and forth in an effort to drum up emergency aid. The Kinship Circle issued calls for emergency evacuation of frightened horses and cattle in Escondido Canyon. Victoria Harris at the California Wildlife Center, located on Piuma Road off Mulholland, very near to where the fire first burned and which was evacuated Monday, passed the word to potential rescuers.
Dealing with disaster
Up to 1,500 residents heeded calls to evacuate, including Robert Ahola, who lives on Carbon Canyon Road.
“TV crews were camped on my lawn,” Ahola said. “By Sunday afternoon, the fire had leapfrogged over the valley just below and was coming up the hill. We had fire crews from Orange County, wonderful guys, and they all offered to help me pack up and hose down the house. They’re patient, but they want you out.”
Ahola, a playwright and author, said he finally decided to leave his home mid-afternoon. “I’m not difficult to evacuate,” he said. “My computer, some intellectual property and some clothes. It’s just a house. All monuments to the minds of men can end in ruins.”
Ahola’s home burned to the ground in the ’93 fire. When asked if this second conflagration would convince him to leave Malibu, he replied, “Of course not. It’s the price of paradise. It’s like that old Willie Nelson song, “Sometimes it’s heaven, sometimes it’s hell and sometimes you don’t even know.”
Established in 1971 by Pierre and Solange Lemonnier, the business was originally located on Pacific Coast Highway near where Beau Rivage restaurant is now located.
The Lemmonier’s son Gerald learned the business from his father and when Pierre died in 1980, he took over.
Solange, who is not involved in the business any longer, said, “Everyone thing’s gone; we saved two trucks that were there.”
Solange said she is “still in shock … it’s sinking in loud and clear, everything’s gone.”
Of how her son is handling the loss, she said, “It’s a tough time, but he’s handling it OK, it’s no fun being burned out.”
She said her son is keeping the business open, despite the loss of the building. “We were burned out, but are not out of business,” she said.
Rich Leo, a Winding Way resident, who can be regularly seen at Malibu Colony Plaza, was still spending time there on Monday relaxing at a table with a friend, despite Ralphs being the only business open. He said his friend wanted to get out of the house.
“A lot of people are going crazy not being able to go anywhere. Everybody’s feeling cabin fever,” Leo said.
Offers of help pour in
Governor Schwarzenegger, who toured Malibu on Monday, and President Bush have declared seven Southland counties as disaster areas, freeing up federal and state funds to help communities who will need to re-build.
The Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue has offered their facilities to the Malibu Presbyterian Church, the city landmark that opened in 1951 and which was totally destroyed by the fire on Sunday.
Malibu Presbyterian Church elder Jim Ludwig said on Tuesday. “Our church sees 700 worshippers on Sunday and our facilities are packed with classes every day of the week — Bible study, Mommy and Me classes, AA meetings. We have a very dynamic congregation and we will need someplace to continue all our programs.”
Bruce Friedman, president of Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue said, “Our hearts are broken over the loss of their church and preschool facilities. We want to make sure their kids have a place to go and that their congregation has a place to worship.
“Our home is their home for as long as they need it,” he added.
The Malibu Presbyterian Church has a long history of huge community outreach.
“We have a $500,000 commitment to building a teen center in downtown L.A. and we are sending a Habitat for Humanity team to Mexico next month,” Ludwig said. “All our outreach commitments are still firm, despite the fire.”
Rabbi Levi Cunin and the Malibu Chabad have also extended an offer of help to the Presbyterian Church. “We don’t have the large facilities that the Jewish center has but we have offered space for their AA meetings and other programs,” he said.
The Rabbi believes that the fire created responsibilities as well as opportunities. “This is a time of unity; for us all to be there for each other,” he said. “I saw people evacuating on the hill who would run under flying embers to their neighbors’ homes, just to make sure they got out all right.”
Ludwig said he has been gratefully overwhelmed by the offers of support from the community here. “But, really, it’s been coming from all over the world,” he said. “You should see my e-mails. Our church made it through multiple disasters over the years and this one got us. But our ministry will continue. Our building may be gone, but our church isn’t gone.”
Information on how to help Malibu Presbyterian Church can be obtained online at www.malibupres.org. Malibu Glass Company will relocate and can be contacted at 310.456.1844.