Photos courtesy of Roxana Astemborski (Art Editor), Kelly Sayre, Thor Anderson, Sabrina Jones & Chris Segal (Director of Strategic Planning)
JANE LEE & SAMANTHA BLONS
News Editor & Assistant News Editor
As the Malibu Canyon fire continues to blaze and all roads leading to the Pepperdine campus remain closed, university officials have announced that classes have been canceled for Tuesday.
The fire is estimated to be 10 percent contained, and it is not known when the roads will open again. Students, faculty and staff on the Malibu campus remain safe and are encouraged to not leave campus.
President Andrew K. Benton sent a notice to students around 5 p.m., saying the campus “continues to be quiet and secure.”
“The firefighters will return this evening for rest in preparation for what appears to be a fire that will persist in this area for a while,” he said.
Benton expressed an interest in communicating with family members and others who might be curious in how things are going. Because he does not have a database to do so, he asks students to relay new information to anyone interested in updates.
The 3,800-acre Malibu Canyon fire is one of three fires in Los Angeles County that have burned more than 51,300 acres since Sunday morning. The fire is currently moving southeast away from Pepperdine’s campus, but fire officials say it has been shifting all day according to the direction of the winds.
A change in the winds could send it back toward the university, said Captain Sam Padilla of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “There is definitely that possibility. We can’t predict what the winds are going to do.”
Fires are also burning all along the California coast from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who held a press conference in Malibu today, has declared a state of emergency in seven counties, and hundreds of thousands of residents have evacuated communities across Southern California.
Updated at 8:00 p.m.
10-22-2007
