A fierce wildfire spread quickly in Malibu early Tuesday, triggering evacuations along the coast, while nearby Pepperdine University issued a shelter-in-place order for the entire campus and firefighters struggled to battle the flames.

Most of the eastern half of Malibu was evacuated, with the rest of the city under an evacuation warning. According to the fire department, around 6,000 residents live in the area where the evacuation was ordered – the largest part of the city of around 11,000 residents. Around 2,000 structures are affected by the mandatory evacuation order.

According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the fire, dubbed the “Franklin Fire,” spread at breakneck speed, was fueled by strong Santa Ana winds, and was uncontained at more than 1,822 acres as of 3 a.m. this morning explodes.

Flames were reported on both sides of the Pacific Coast Highway, with the fire spilling onto the roadway in at least two locations – in the area around Malibu Pier and around Malibu Road and Webb Way, right next to the Malibu Colony Plaza, where a Ralphs Supermarket is located, according to the city.

Structures were “affected” along Malibu Knolls Road, where there are a few homes and a church, and in the area of ​​Sweetwater Canyon Drive, where there are more than a dozen homes, the city said.

Residents said they had only minutes to escape as they saw a storm of embers raining down, setting hillsides and trees ablaze, and that they had little time to decide what to take with them.

“I think I’m in shock right now,” said Malibu City Councilman Bruce Silverstein, who evacuated with his family shortly after smelling smoke at home in the hills above City Hall around 11 p.m

His wife was informed of the fire and at 11:20 p.m. the flames engulfed the hillside as the sky grew redder. The couple packed their bags and drove toward Santa Monica on the Pacific Coast Highway to check into a hotel.

The lawn and trees surrounding the house were burning “just wildly,” said Silverstein, who watched the fire gradually approach his property via internet-connected Ring cameras stationed around his home.

“My house has been close to catching fire several times in the last few hours,” Silverstein said. The bushes and fence at the top of the property were burning, a sight captured on video, but firefighters arrived and doused the area.

“We thought it was completely under control,” Silverstein said. “Then a bunch of embers flew into the yard.”

L.A. County Fire Department spokesman Jonathan Torres told the Times that hundreds of firefighters responded to the fire and were hampered by winds of 50 to 80 miles per hour.

Firefighting helicopters collected water from the lakes at Pepperdine’s Alumni Park to drop on the flames, the campus said.

The fire was reported just before 11 p.m. along Malibu Canyon Road and north of Francisco Ranch Road in the hills north of Pepperdine.

Around the time the fire spread, gusts of up to 65 miles per hour were reported. Around 3:30 a.m., winds weakened slightly, with gusts in the 40 mph range, National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall said. But patterns observed in past wind events in Santa Ana “suggest that winds should strengthen toward daybreak,” Hall said. By now the relative humidity was quite dry and was only 5%.

The cause of the fire was unclear.

By around 1 a.m. Tuesday, the fire had reached the Serra Retreat area and was threatening buildings. The community is located less than a mile approximately three-fifths of a mile northwest of the Malibu Pier. There are private homes as well as a Catholic retreat and conference center known for its views.

Firefighters from Orange and Ventura counties and the City of LA joined LA County firefighters in providing on-scene and aerial assistance to control the fire.

A six-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway was closed east of Corral Canyon Road and west of Las Flores Canyon Road, the city of Malibu said. Las Virgenes Road, which continues as Malibu Canyon Road on the way to the coast, is closed south of Mulholland Highway to Pacific Coast Highway, a six-mile stretch of road, the city added.

An evacuation warning along the Pacific Coast Highway extended east to the edge of the Los Angeles city limits, the border of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and as far west as Zuma Beach.

A temporary evacuation center has been set up at the Palisades Recreation Center at 851 Alma Real Drive. Large animals can go to Pierce College, 6201 Winnetka Ave. in Woodland Hills.

Pepperdine University was in the heart of the evacuation area, but the university directed students and others on campus to remain there and follow the university’s emergency protocol. “All community members on the Malibu campus are directed to seek shelter at the Tyler Campus Center or Payson Library,” Pepperdine said on X at 1:09 a.m. Tuesday.

Around 3:30 a.m., the school said, “The worst part of the fire has passed Pepperdine.” The university noted that spot fires continued to burn on campus, but no buildings or lives were threatened. People on campus were asked to stay until at least sunrise.

Malibu resident Alp Toygar told the Times that the city had a power outage.

“Flames are everywhere,” he said. “People are running in vehicles from Malibu in both directions on the coastal road. I just drove through the flames… on the highway. No traffic lights. Police cars and fire trucks are everywhere.”

The National Weather Service has issued a “particularly hazardous situation” warning for much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties that will last through Tuesday afternoon. Gusts of up to 80 miles per hour are possible and relative humidity is expected to be worryingly low while vegetation will be extremely dry.

The weather service said strong and damaging winds from the north and northeast are expected to peak around sunrise Tuesday and continue through late Tuesday morning in the Franklin fire area.

The relative humidity was just 9% just before midnight.

More than 3,500 customers were reportedly without power early Tuesday morning due to the fire, according to Southern California Edison’s online outage map.

This is the second time this fire season that the weather service has issued a particularly dangerous warning. The last warning was issued on November 5, and a day later the Mountain Fire ignited in Ventura County and, buffeted by strong winds, destroyed more than 240 structures. It was the third largest wildfire in Southern California since 2013.

The dry, strong Santa Ana winds are driven by a high-pressure system in the Great Basin that pushes air through canyons and mountain passes toward the coast, where low pressure prevails.

Malibu and neighboring communities in Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Agoura Hills experienced tremendous destruction in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which destroyed more than 1,600 structures and burned approximately 97,000 acres.

Pepperdine University has a well-documented shelter-in-place protocol when wildfires threaten Malibu, as it can be difficult to quickly evacuate campus on narrow streets in a crisis.

The university says the campus buildings are constructed of fire-resistant materials and brush is cleared at least 200 feet from the buildings. The school received some criticism for its shelter-in-place plan after the campus used it during the Woolsey Fire in 2018, leaving some students fearful of remaining on campus.

Classes and final exams were canceled Tuesday at Pepperdine University’s campus in Malibu.

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.