Las Flores Canyon: “The fire’s out”

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Rod Percival, 46, coasted his mountain bike down Las Flores Canyon Road, his dog Ayla skittering behind him. Like many residents, Percival and his wife had refused to go. Late Tuesday morning, he used his trusty bike to patrol the canyon and take stock, as best as he could, of the fire danger.

A neighbor, Bruce Bolander, 43, asked Percival how things looked.

“We’re safe. I’ve just ridden around the entire canyon,” Percival responded. “The fire’s out.”

Bolander asked his friend whether he thought there was any way to sneak his wife, Bonny, past the sheriff’s barricade. She was at Duke’s, a popular restaurant down on Pacific Coast Highway.

“Is she prepared to walk?” Percival asked, not conveying much optimism.

Bolander muttered an expletive.

Percival himself wanted to go down to PCH, but knew that if he did so, he would not be let back in.

“I need some beer. I’m out of beer,” Percival half-joked. “This is terrible.”

High above Las Flores Canyon, at Fire Camp 8, Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Jeff Kaliher said the situation in the still-smoldering mountains of Malibu was improving. Firefighters below and aircraft above had kept a crucial front of the wildfire from marching toward Topanga Canyon.

“We’re holding the eastern line,” Kaliher said.

Things had improved to the point where his strike team could relax a little, roughhouse with the two camp dogs, picnic with brown bag lunches and lather up their fire engine.

Keliher had not been impressed with the choices some Malibu residents had made. Some had done a terrible job of clearing brush, he said.

“There’s some homes, the only reason they’re here is because engines were here to save them,” Keliher said.

The fire captain said he was hopeful that the Malibu fire could be contained soon. But he also knew, one way or another, one place or another, that his team’s job was far from done.

“You’ve got San Diego. You’ve got Arrowhead,” Keliher said. “Once they determine we’re not needed here, we’ll be reassigned elsewhere.”

-- Tami Abdollah