Fast-moving wildfire forces evacuations near Malibu

An evacuation order is in place near the city of Malibu in the US state of California after a wildfire broke out with a “rapid rate of spread”.

The blaze has been dubbed the Franklin Fire by authorities, who say it has burned more than 300 acres in Malibu Canyon after starting at about 22:50 local time on Monday (06:50 GMT).

Firefighters are on the scene and a mandatory evacuation order is in place in the surrounding area.

It is not yet clear what caused the blaze, which has been labelled a brush fire – meaning a type of blaze that affects lower-lying vegetation such as grasses.

Wildfires more generally in California have the capacity to burn through thousands of acres of vegetation, meaning that this blaze is relatively small – although officials have highlighted its speed of spread.

The evacuation order covered a region east of Malibu Canyon Road and South of Piuma Road as well as the Serra Retreat area, the County of Los Angeles Fire Department said.

Malibu authorities highlighted that the fire itself was about three miles (4.8km) north of the Pacific Coast Highway.

It is north of Malibu itself – a small, upmarket city west of Los Angeles popular with wealthy celebrities – and near to Pepperdine University.

The university said the incident was not threatening its property, but that the fire had the potential to grow and that the local area might experience power cuts.

Indeed, the Pepperdine Graphic student newspaper has reported one such cut.

The latest incident comes about a month after another fire forced thousands of people to evacuate another nearby city, Moorpark.

California is a state that is prone to wildfires. The amount of burned areas in the summer in northern and central California increased five times from 1996 to 2021 compared with the 24-year period before, which scientists have attributed to human-caused climate change.

Not all wildfires can automatically be linked directly to climate change. The science is complicated and human factors, including how we manage land and forests, also contribute.

However, scientists say that climate change is making weather conditions that lead to wildfires, such as heat and drought, more likely.