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Veronique de Turenne is monitoring the Malibu situation, where Pepperdine students have been evacuated to a campus center, Malibu Presbyterian Church and the visual landmark Malibu castle have been destroyed, and flames have been spotted on the roof of stores at Malibu Colony Plaza. Homes are burning and threatened around the downtown Malibu area and up Malibu Canyon. Firefighters are apparently making a stand trying to save the historic Adamson House on Pacific Coast Highway. PCH is closed in or out of Malibu, at Kanan-Dume on the upper side and Topanga on the lower side. See Veronique at Here in Malibu for details.
Also, firefighters are close to containing flames in Porter Ranch and and another fire near Piru, in Ventura County, had burned about 500 acres but no homes were immediately threatened.
Channels 2, 4, 5 and 7 are live on the Malibu fire. These are all fast-moving situations, driven by the wind. But it's capricious — there are no winds at all here on the Westside.
* 6:30 pm update: Homes are burning in Santa Clarita, where several neighborhoods have been evacuated and multiple fire lines are racing southwest. Canyon Country and adjacent is the current hot spot. Officials are talking about 10,000 acres charred. TV coverage is live on 2, 5, 7, 9 and 13 with the focus in Santa Clarita (4 has football, 11 has the Red Sox-Indians.) The L.A. Times website has had staff reporters blogging from Malibu, but hasn't yet caught on that Santa Clarita is the story now.
** 7 pm update: All the local stations dropped live coverage except 9 and 13, which stay on the Santa Clarita fires. ("60 Minutes" has a national story on wildfires becoming bigger.) The Times re-led its mainbar with Santa Clarita and a more regional roundup.