MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of Southern California residents were under evacuation orders and warnings Tuesday as firefighters in Malibu battled a wind-driven wildfire that burned near oceanfront mansions and Pepperdine University, where students attending the School library sought shelter, watched the fire intensify and the sky turned deep red.

A “minimal number” of homes burned, but the exact amount was not immediately known, Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony C. Marrone said. More than 8,100 homes and other buildings were threatened, including more than 2,000 whose residents had to be evacuated. Another 6,000 people were warned to prepare for short-term evacuation

Ryan Song, a resident at Pepperdine University, said he first noticed the power was out in his dorm late Monday, and then he looked out the window and saw a huge pink glow.

“I thought it was too bright and it kept getting bigger,” said the 20-year-old junior. “I immediately went outside and saw it was a real fire.”

Song and the other interns went door to door evacuating students. Most were calm and followed instructions, he said; Some, frightened, ran to their cars to leave campus.

Song spent the next few hours running back and forth in the dark between his dorm and the main campus, making sure no one was left behind as the fire raged down a mountain, he said.

“It felt really close,” he said, adding that he was probably less than a mile away. “Seeing the fire raging down the hill is obviously scary for the students, but I felt like our staff were prepared.”

The university later said the worst of the fire had already spread across campus.

It was not immediately known how the blaze, dubbed the Franklin Fire, started. The county fire department estimated that more than 3.5 square miles (9 square kilometers) of trees and dry brush had burned and structures were at risk. There was no containment.

The fire was burning under dangerous burning conditions due to the notorious Santa Ana winds, which were expected to continue into Wednesday.

Marrone said at least a thousand firefighters would try to bring the fire under control before 2 p.m., when winds are expected to pick up again. “Time is of the essence for us to get the fire under control and begin containment,” the chief said at a morning news conference.

The fire broke out just before 11 p.m. Tuesday and spread quickly south, skipping the famed Pacific Coast Highway and spreading to the ocean, where large homes line the beach and inland canyons are notoriously fire-prone. At one point it threatened the historic Malibu Pier, but the structure was protected and intact, officials said.

Pepperdine canceled classes and final exams for the day and had a curfew on campus. Helicopters dropped water collected from lakes in the school’s Alumni Park onto the flames.

Firefighters used flashlights and hoses to protect surrounding homes overnight, ABC 7 reported. As the sun rose Tuesday, smoke billowed over the campus and adjacent mountains that slope toward the coast.

“The university recognizes that Pepperdine has put the worst of the fire behind it. However, there are small, isolated fires on campus that do not threaten lives or buildings, and fire resources remain on campus to combat these isolated fires as they occur,” Pepperdine wrote in an online statement.

North to northeast winds were expected to increase to 30 to 40 miles per hour (48 to 64 km/h), with gusts of up to 65 miles per hour (105 km/h) expected, according to the National Weather Service Los Angeles office published on X.

By Monday evening, power was off to about 40,000 customers, including 11,000 in L.A. County, as Edison in Southern California worked to mitigate the impact of the Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts can damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires. Emails and phone messages were left with Edison asking whether power had been shut off in Malibu before the fire broke out.

The Woolsey Fire, which raged through Malibu in 2018, killing three people and destroying 1,600 homes, was started by Edison appliances.

Santa Anas are dry, warm, gusty northeast winds that blow toward and offshore from the interior of Southern California. They typically occur in the fall months and continue through the winter and into early spring.

The weather service issued a high fire danger and rare “particularly hazardous situation” (PDS) warning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties Monday through Tuesday from 8 p.m.

___ Associated Press journalists Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

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