Topanga Canyon and many other locations have now been evacuated by Woolsey fire

Topanga Canyon and many locations to the East and the west of Malibu and to the north have now been evacuated. Last Friday the Fire reached the ocean in many places near Malibu and skirted Pepperdine University. They lost some portable buildings at Pepperdine but lost no students that I know of by sheltering them in place (even though many parents around the country and world were very upset for the university sheltering students in place in two buildings. IF you look at the maps in the previous article, the fire has moved along the coastal range towards Santa Monica and Point Mugu more than last week. So, the winds and the fire are not stopping anytime soon. Fire officials have said they expect the fire to keep going off and on for at least 18 more days because of the winds and very very dry conditions off and on. The problem becomes when embers get into the roots of bushes and trees and the coal along those roots and come up later (sometimes days later) at another point. Then the winds hit those coals now on the surface and fan those embers into another fire. You cannot expect firemen and women to dig down 6 feet or more where roots might be coaling because that just isn't practical and actually might lead eventually to flash flooding when the rains come (whenever that is going to be) (sometime between now and April). So, this is very problematic and we also dealt with this very same problem during the Thomas Fire last year that started I believe in Ventura county last year.