A wildfire is tearing through swathes of Southern California’s iconic Malibu coastline, forcing residents to flee as flames threaten homes and businesses.
The Franklin Fire ignited late on Monday, December 9. For a time, it burned through an area larger than five football fields every minute.
The fire’s footprint exploded from 100 acres at 11:54 p.m. Monday to nearly 2,600 acres before noon on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles County Fire and CalFire officials.
The inferno is so intense that it’s altering the weather around it and worsening already extreme conditions.
“The fire is burning so hot that it is modifying the local winds… (and) bending them towards and into the fire,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned on Tuesday morning.
