Malibu mayor on how hard his city was hit by the Palisades fire

As wildfires blaze on in California and Santa Ana winds gust up to 72 miles per hour, the city of Malibu can’t afford any more losses than it’s already suffered.

Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart says the fire wiped out nearly one-third of the city, including historic homes along the Pacific Coast Highway. Stewart says hundreds of homes have been lost and even more damaged, dislocating a large part of the community.

“Even though we're very close to the second largest city in the country, this is a town of community,” Stewart says. “You can't go to the grocery store without running into people you know. These are friends, family, neighbors, neighborhoods. This is a tremendous loss for us, and we're going to bounce back from it.”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

“We're going to do our best to bring it back. One of the things that just happened in our benefit — and we were so, so pleased — was Gov. [Gavin] Newsom's waiving the Coastal Commission requirements and the environmental requirements for direct rebuilds.

“So that iconic nature you're talking about, we hopefully can put those homes right back in place in the same spots.”

“You can build the same home back, hopefully with more fireproofing, and not change the appearance and we're going to have to address that.

“We have a team here in the city working on it right now to take advantage of the governor's order to see what we can do to put these rebuilds back quickly and as close to what we had down before.

“It's going to be difficult from an insurance standpoint. Some of these insurance companies are not going to pay for the upgrades. We've got to figure out how to help the homeowners to overcome that.”

“I think everyone has an opinion about what needs to be done. And that's where we need to build a consensus.

“They're right in one aspect and it is, yes, we have to improve how things are set up. You can't just rebuild the same wood shack and expect it not to burn again. So, we're going to have to have fireproofing in here, but a lot of our city codes and our fire building codes already take this into consideration. So it's not like we're going to have to start cold turkey here.”

“The city of Malibu is here working for you. We feel the losses: the loss of life, the loss of the injuries that have taken place, and we're going to do everything we can to get you back in your homes as soon as we can.

“We're here for you. And we're going to take care of you, and Malibu is going to be strong. We're family all the way.”