Bryson Fire burning parts of Malibu

Breaking news in nearby Malibu. This is on 427 Encinal Canyon Road near Mulholland Highway. So far, we're looking at a fire here with 11 acres burned. You can see, though, perhaps those are actually active flames there. Obviously, with this Santa Ana wind condition, a lot of concern in a lot of areas. There you go. Much closer shot there of the flames there in the Bryson fire. You can see some kind of uh structure to the left of your screen there not too many homes visible in this immediate area but there you go you see just a hop skip and a jump away you see a lot more structures and homes there uh Santa Monica Mountains National Preserve there and so there you go as we look here waiting to see if we have any water dropping helicopters or Foscheck planes coming through okay to the bottom there look at the structures there to the bottom of that fire there's a helicopter there we go right there we see it looks like that is a a mix of homes perhaps in that area got to be a lot of concern right there for those people who live there not sure if they are homes or some kind of business type structure there uh that that that flat line there of structures looks more like possibly a business to me not quite sure all right but there you go there we have another helicopter coming in. As we know, fire crews were already on alert with word that we're going to have Santa Ana winds coming through and a beautiful drop right there. Obviously, the goal is to first protect lives and then, of course, structures. So right now, they want to get a handle on this one because we've seen these fires burn all the way down to the ocean. There you go. Another helicopter there. So it looks like they're really tackling this from the air quite quickly, despite there having been fires elsewhere already in Southern California. So again, this is the Malibu area. This is called the Bryson Fire. Again, hard to tell if that is some kind of business complex below or actual homes. Now there, that shot right there, a lot more visible when it comes to the active flames burning there. We'll get a feel from Adam Kruger about the winds on this one. We know with the Santa Ana conditions, the winds are varying depending on the day and the hour. Okay, there you go. Looks like, looks to me like home was in that circular area there. Fire crews stationed there on the ground as well. All right, you see there the winds blowing the smoke up the hillside there, kind of away from those structures. Adam Kruger, our meteorologist, let's bring you in here. You talked about winds varying from like 30 miles per hour to possibly in some areas 70 miles per hour. Where are we at here in Malibu? Hey, Christine. Yeah. So there's going to be, you know, a range of winds depending on the exact specific location we're talking about. But I've got a weather station available pretty close to where this fire is. It's up in the mountains there near Malibu. And so that specific weather station is showing a wind gust at 5 p.m. of 41 miles per hour. Pretty significant. And for this particular station, that's the highest wind gust we've seen there all day long. So this was the expectation is that winds would be on the increase as we went through the day today. And I'll tell you, as far as the wind forecast goes, we expect the wind speeds to increase even more later tonight. This is not one of those situations where we get the winds during the day and they calm down at night. If anything, the wind speeds actually increase as we go late through the night tonight. I'd say after midnight, in fact, the wind speeds go up even more. And tomorrow should be the peak of our strongest winds. But still, like I said, they've been increasing through this afternoon. So the weather station that I'm referencing, again, near this fire, we get a data output from it every 10 minutes. And so going back, like I said, 5 p.m., it was showing a gust of 41. 10 minutes before that, the gust was at 30, and then it was 31, 30, 25. So it's been kind of 20s and 30s over the last hour or two, and the highest gust we've seen is just in the last few minutes at 41. Those winds are blowing from the northeast. That's that Santa and a wind direction. So from northeast, meaning it's blowing towards the ocean. However, as we often see with these fires as they're in steep terrain, that the fire can kind of travel where it wants. It likes to go uphill. So it doesn't necessarily follow the winds. I mean, yes, the winds would help fan the flames in a certain direction and blow embers in a certain direction, but also the flames can spread anywhere depending more so on the terrain. And it looks like this is a pretty substantial line of fire right there. Now, in addition to the wind, we obviously have hot and dry conditions. Those are the three things that make up a Santa Ana wind event. Windy, very low humidity, and very hot temperatures. Right now, near Malibu, it's 89 degrees. That's hot, and the relative humidity is 16%. Generally, anytime we're talking under 20%, that's very dry air. So again, it's dry, it's hot, and it's windy. Like I said, gusts near this area are topping out just over 40 miles per hour right now and unfortunately those wind speeds are going to hold about at that level through the rest of this afternoon and evening and if anything late tonight the wind speeds will go up even a little bit more Christine as we look at this fire here i'm thinking of the information you just put out for us right there that you do expect the winds to increase at night it's obviously a lot of concern in this area in Malibu my question for you is we also think of it being cooler conditions and more moisture at night thoughts on that right so obviously i mean temperature wise once the sun goes down yes it does naturally cool down however uh not the situation where the humidity goes up tonight so you know again under normal circumstances yes it obviously cools off at night and the humidity tends to go up at night as well this the humidity we're seeing has to do 100 with the wind so even though it will get cooler tonight um the winds are going to continue to create that dry air. And while relative humidity might slightly fluctuate to a slightly more humid direction overnight, it's still going to be very dry air. So it's not the situation where, you know, at times in the last month or two, we've seen wildfires flare up, but we knew going into the evening hours that humidity would be up a lot and winds would be going down at night. This is not the situation because what we're seeing with our current weather is completely 100% driven by the wind direction and the fact that we're finding strong winds coming out of the desert over the mountains creating that hot and dry environment so we continue to deal with favorable fire conditions essentially as we get into the nighttime hours so it's not like we're going to get any big relief weather-wise anytime soon and and again just thinking forward you know tomorrow the winds get even stronger saturday we still have red flag warnings the winds overall might not be as intense on saturday but we've got a three-day stretch here today friday and saturday where if a fire may start it could get out of control quickly and it looks like we we are potentially looking at that here in real time right now all right let me get back to something you said favorable fire conditions right right just hot dry windy um and again that that really doesn't change much during the nighttime hours so it's not just a daytime thing it's it's day and night all the way through saturday we're going to be on watch for you know if a fire starts for it to get out of control pretty quick all right that looks like a staging area perhaps for the fire department you see a number of fire trucks there on the ground of course we always talk about structure protection with that fire burning up the hillside looks like those structures below seem to be in a fairly safer zone at the moment obviously the fire trucks wouldn't be there if they didn't feel like it was a safer zone for them wondering if there are ground crews there as well cutting fire lines to add a little protection uh as we're looking at this adam you talked about the fire burning towards the ocean do you expect with the the additional winds tonight for it to change direction or does it continue that same direction and stand by stand by i want to go to a phone here stand by uh we have with LA County Fire Pauline McGee with us, uh thanks Pauline for joining us. Yes, hi, thank you for having me all right, tell me your thoughts right now as we look at this fire. Well, from what I'm having, the CAD, I I don't have my eyes on it, unfortunately, but, you know, we were dispatched to this fire at 4:44. We arrived on scene at 4:51 to the 400 block of Encino Canyon Road between Mulholland Highway and Zuma Ridge Mountain Way. When the units arrived on scene, they reported that there was smoke showing a fire going about two acres. So it is a working fire. This is considered our first alarm. So we have about 115 personnel on scene working to suppress this fire with various resources. Right now, there's no reports of any injuries. No structures are being threatened and no evacuation orders are in place. Do you know what the structures are below the fire? It looks like there's some kind of staging area because we see a number of fire trucks there and some structures. I can't quite tell if it's more of a business kind of complex of some form or actually homes there. Well, again, I don't have my eyes on it, so I don't know what's there. So you have a better view than I do. So I only can report what I have here. Gotcha. Okay. So a first alarm fire, 115 personnel, and we saw helicopters too. Can you give us an update on how you're fighting this fire? So, yeah, we're definitely fighting this fire from the ground. So we have fire personnel on the ground as well as in the air. So on the first one, we have about four helicopters that respond to this incident, and we have our ground personnel. So it takes both teams to work together to successfully extinguish or suppress this fire. We're looking at here a wide shot from the air here. You can see different parts that have some structures, looks like homes in certain areas. Our meteorologist said the fire is burning towards the ocean. How concerned are you about winds picking up tonight? Oh, we're very much concerned. You know, that's why we have the red flag warnings in place. The red flag warnings in place because it's predicted to have high winds, high temperature, and low humidity. So that is a sign for, you know, a fire that can start quickly and spread real quickly. And so that's why we have augmented staffing in place because of that. So, you know, we're very much concerned about that. And so we pre-positioned resources out there so we can respond to incidents such as this one pretty quickly. You know, the fire, we got the call at 444 and was on scene within five minutes. Yeah, I noticed when you said that, I'm like, wow, that's pretty quick. So the pre-positioning of resources, how does that work? I mean, obviously, L.A. County is a big county. How do you factor that in? Great question. And so we factored those high-risk areas, you know, Santa Clarita, Antelope Valley, along the 101 corridor, cities like Calabasas, Agoura Hills, and then along the coast where we are right now, Malibu, right? So, you know, those are the areas that are prone to incidents. And so we want to make sure we're strategically placed our resources in areas in the event that incidents do occur, such as the Malibu that we're experiencing right now, which is called the Bryson Fire. We get on those scenes really quickly and aggressively fight those fires. Do you know why it's called the Bryson Fire? It's probably the street name that they're on. Okay. And then you talked about strategically placed resources. Our crews, oh, we're looking at a beautiful helicopter here coming in with a drop, I'm sure. are you um having people stay over hours extra shifts yeah so again we do have augmented staffing in place the red flag alarm um warning went out this morning at 6 a.m and it's going to be until friday night to 10 p.m and it may carry over to saturday um but right now so we have increased staffing and uh for today and friday so we're looking at you know approximately 100 additional personnel. As I look at the immediate scene here I think of anything in the path of the fire should it continue to blow towards the ocean. Do you have crews that are advancing these areas and how does that work? Again you know they're gonna we have eyes up in the air right we have our helicopters that are tracking the direction of the fire and we have our ground personnel they're going to follow that fire until it's suppressed and we have 100% containment. So that's what we do. We're going to continue to fight this fire to the best of our ability. These guys are highly trained. Our pilots as well as our ground personnel, they're highly trained and they'll make sure that they'll get control of this fire. All right, Pauline McGee, thanks so much for your perspective. We are going to let you go now here as we take a look at some very active flames here. This again is the Bryson fire as you heard her say that is named after the street we are grateful for the information there from LA County Fire thanks Pauline so as we look at this here Adam Krueger whenever we see active flames obviously a big concern but when you tell me the winds are going to pick up tonight even more concern yeah and and again it's windy now it's going to get more windy I think what's really interesting I know I was calling for this if we can bring back the aerial shot real quick because I just want to point out one thing if possible because what we saw I know it's in the corner here. It's kind of small, but we saw the smoke clearly going in one specific direction. But the flames we were looking at, I know it's small in the corner there, but the flames are actually running uphill, which is opposite of where the winds are blowing, at least in this specific shot right here. So it's not, sorry about that. So it's not always flames just 100% follow the wind direction. The terrain has an impact as well, and the flames will go uphill essentially regardless of what the winds are doing. So just mapping this all out now. So here's the Bryson fire. So again, here's Malibu. This is Point Dume. A lot of people probably familiar with that. We have this yellow area here, which is an evacuation warning meaning, not mandatory, but folks there need to be aware that a mandatory, uh, evacuation order could potentially come. So we've got that yellow zone representing that again, there's the Bryson fire. So Point Dume at the bottom of the map right here, coming in a little bit closer. Uh, we don't have an official fire perimeter mapped out yet from the agencies that handle that. So, um, uh, we'll kind of have go with the aerials as far as where exactly the fire is right now. And then I want to switch from this to a map showing specific weather stations. There's a lot of them thankfully across a lot of the mountains especially because in a situation like this it's very useful. So I'm going to come in a little bit closer on this one right here which is pretty close to where the fire is burning right now. So what you're seeing here you'll notice these little kind of like flag or tail looking things. They're showing the wind direction. So winds are going at least right here pretty much straight north to south. For the most part, winds are going northeast to southwest. And then you'll notice some numbers. The black numbers are the temperatures. So we have temperatures in the 80s right now. The red numbers are the current wind gusts. And so wind gusts exactly right here is 32 miles per hour. And I'm going to take that one full screen here and show you what that specific weather station is showing. Let me come down a little bit here. And I know this is not the most TV-friendly thing here, but I just want to give you all the data we're looking at. So that weather station close to where this fire is, notice we've got multiple lines here. Each one is a 10-minute measurement of what that weather station is measuring. So we've got the temperatures running in the 80s. We've got the dew points pretty low. We have the relative humidity, as you see, under 20%. That's very dry air. But the key column to look at right there is the wind gusts. And I I know we just brought it off the screen, but the gusts are indicating between about 30 and 40 miles per hour pretty consistently over the last hour or two, as opposed to earlier in the day where the wind gusts weren't quite as strong. But they really ramped up late morning and been holding pretty strong through much of the late morning through now late afternoon. And again, current gusts around 32. I'd say average wind gusts 30 to 40 miles per hour are likely common in the next hour or two. And winds of that magnitude should continue through this evening. And if anything, I think it's possible the wind speeds go up late tonight, especially after midnight. So that's going to continue to make for potentially a tricky situation. So, again, as we look at this to kind of give you some context as to orientation of what direction is what here. So I would imagine on the right side of the screen is north and the left side is south. So the left side is towards the ocean. and so you can see the smoke essentially going from north to south or in this view would be right to left on the screen so flames are naturally going to get a push in that direction any embers in the air would naturally go in that direction as well however flames could still be going from left to right on your screen meaning they might be going uphill regardless of what the wind is doing the flames like to go uphill so i think we're seeing an example of that it looks like we're kind of have some of these active flames on a ridge top right here so they might not maybe race down the hill on the far right part of your screen. But either way, we've got a significant amount of smoke. We've got several areas, Christine, where I can tell where there's active flames going on right now. I know we're zoomed in on one specific one, but I think there's probably multiple areas where we have active flames around this fire. All right, Adam, thank you. We did talk with L.A. County Fire. They're saying at the moment no structures threatened. For perspective on this area in Malibu, it is in between Thousand Oaks and Point Dume, the beautiful beach in that area in Malibu. We are watching this fire here as you heard Adam Kruger say the winds are expected to pick up tonight. We also heard from L.A. County Fire saying they've been ready for this red flag alert. They have crews in place well ahead of this. Alright, we're going to have more news when we come back. Keep watching on this fire here the Bryson Fire.