The Franklin Fire erupted on Monday night and grew to more than 2,000 acres within hours. It jumped Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu Canyon Road, and spread south toward the ocean early Tuesday morning, threatening the Malibu Pier. As of Tuesday noon, at least 6,000 Malibu residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, and 18,000 are under an evacuation warning. Students at Pepperdine University are out of immediate danger.
This is the biggest fire since Woolsey in 2018, says Mikke Pierson, former Malibu City Council member and long-time Malibu resident. He’s also part of LA County Fire’s Community Brigade program, which is the first of its kind in California.
“After the Woolsey Fire, it was really apparent that these fires now are so big, and so hot, and so fast that there's just never going to be enough fire people to begin to try and deal with it,” Pierson explains. “So fast forward, working with LA County and with a great group of people, and [County Supervisor] Lindsay Horvath was a great help … we managed to form this program, which is still in the pilot phase. But a group of us have been trained, so that we can go out and assist the fire people at one of these events.”
On Monday night, Pierson and his brigade collaborated with firefighters to tackle the new blazes. “It felt right to be a part of the solution and not just run over by the problem. And so, [it was] pretty empowering for all of us. I think last night, and still a bunch of people are down there today, went a lot better than maybe we would have guessed. And we know we made a difference in a number of ways, and that feels really good.”
The brigade helped saved homes/structures and evacuated people, some of whom were quite emotional, Pierson points out.
“When we get through this, we'll debrief and figure out what we can do better, how we can improve, how we can communicate better. I mean, overall, it went well. But I think we can see the path forward, that this program is going to work.”