Malibu is in flames as two wildfires spread through southern California - here's what it looks like on the ground
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Nov 10, 2018, 05:48 IST
The beach city of Malibu is home to about 13,000 people. On Friday, as flames from the Woolsey Fire raced towards the coast, the entire town was forced to evacuate.
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Shortly after noon on Friday, the City of Malibu said on its website that the "fire is now burning out of control and heading into populated areas of Malibu. All residents must evacuate immediately."
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Stars including Alyssa Milano, Melissa Etheridge, director Guillermo del Toro, and the Kardashian sisters all had to leave their homes in the area.
More than 20,000 structures have burned in the Woolsey Fire, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. Nearly 78,000 people have evacuated.
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As of 1 p.m. on Friday, the Woolsey Fire was 0% contained.
Firefighters went door to door urging people in the Malibu area to evacuate via the Pacific Coast Highway, which was turned into a 4-lane one-way road to safety.
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Nearby, in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, the National Park Service said that "Western Town," a movie set used in the popular show Westworld, had burned to the ground.
On its website, LA County says there's no such thing as a wildfire season anymore — "fire season is now year-round."
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To the north, meanwhile, residents of Paradise, California ran for their lives on foot and packed into cars to escape the Camp Fire. Five people burned to death in their cars.
These fires are part of a trend: Wildfires are getting bigger and stronger as the planet heats up. The worst blaze in California history happened earlier this year, when the Mendocino Complex fire burned down more than 410,000 acres.