The Malibu Hills Are On Fire Again Tonight

Southern California is again experiencing Santa Ana wind conditions. The region has experienced Santa Ana winds for thousands of years before cities formed and long before horses were replaced by automobiles. Since the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire in January 2025, the empty reservoir above the Palisades is still empty and useless, and the dry brush on the hillsides remains uncleared. But it's being cleared now, in a manner of speaking, by an uncontrolled inferno now dubbed the Bryson Fire.

Also, only a month ago a large water main break also affected Malibu and Topanga Canyon, depleting additional reserves of water - essentially the same area that is currently on fire.

Water Main Break Affects Malibu, Topanga Canyon - MyNewsLA.com

A water main break in Pacific Palisades Thursday prompted Malibu officials to issue a plea for residents citywide to limit water use while repairs were made. The leak was on the water line serving Malibu and Topanga Canyon near 16300 block of Pacific Coast Highway, north of Teme...

MyNewsLA.com

As of this writing, the fire has burned over 200+ acres and is growing with zero containment. Firefighters are doing what they can to fight the fire, but many of the hillsides are difficult to get to and many of the roads are quite narrow and winding.

Another brush fire is burning well south near Oceanside near Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego. Some 1400+ acres have burned with zero containment. Winds over the hills on the other side of Oceanside in Temecula are forecasted to hit over 50 miles per hour tomorrow. That will certainly not help matters.

In a year's time, Mayor Karen Bass had ample opportunity to make sure that there was an adequate supply of water to fight any new fires in Los Angeles since the devastation of the Pacific Palisades, but it appears she was busy doing other things, like possibly moving around or pocketing millions of dollars originally intended to help alleviate homelessness and rampant drug use in Los Angeles. It must be said, though, that she is still in Los Angeles and not attending a wedding in Africa… So, there is that.

Spencer Pratt, who lost his own home in the Palisades Fire and challenged Bass in the primary but lost, warned that failure to take adequate measures to replenish reservoirs and clear brush would only invite another catastrophic fire event in the Malibu Hills. But in Los Angeles, it is a metropolis run by masters of insanity as Einstein defined it - doing the same thing (in this case doing nothing) and hoping for a different outcome. Of course, this insanity of governance is replicated up and down the state of California.

It's doubtful, fires aside, that California will turn red. One can hope that Steve Hilton wins the gubernatorial race and ushers in common sense measures like building more reservoirs and dams and even approving the building of desalination plants and clearing hillsides of brush and forests of dead wood; but since it takes months for the state to count ballots, votes for the dimwitted and cowardly Democrat Becerra, who continues to avoid debating Hilton, are likely to magically materialize, installing yet another clueless Democrat.

But hey, miracles sometimes happen…right? Right?