As flames roared and smoke billowed around their campussuperph, the students gathered in the library at Pepperdine University prayed for safety. They donned masks as acrid smoke filtered into the building. They watched anxiously through the windows as the flames drew closer and even consumed some of the palm trees that dot the scenic Malibu campus.
“We saw the flames jump over the Malibu Canyon,” said Gabrielle Salgado, a senior journalism major who was among the 3,000 people who sheltered in place as the Franklin fire pushed past the campus on Monday night.
By early Tuesday morning, the university had lifted the shelter-in-place protocol and was encouraging students to return to on-campus residences. Michael Friel, a university spokesman, said there had been no injuries and little to no damage to structures, though spot fires had burned on campus.
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Flames were visible outside the Payson Library on Pepperdine University’s campus in Malibu, Calif., as students sheltered in place.CreditCredit...Matthew Morrison via XThe Franklin fire continued to rage on Tuesday, after burning more than 2,200 acres overnight and prompting evacuation orders for Malibu, a city of more than 10,000 people.
But at Pepperdine, a Christian school known for its scenic campus nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the ocean, leaders urged students and employees to remain in place rather than navigate the roads as firefighters battled the wildfire. Mr. Friel said sheltering in place was the university’s “primary plan” during wildfires, under a protocol developed in consultation with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
The plan was used most recently in 2018, during the Woolsey fire, Mr. Friel said.
Ms. Salgado said the residence halls lost power around 11 p.m. on Monday. Around 1 a.m., students got an email announcing that the fire was threatening the campus and that they should shelter in place either at the Payson Library or the Tyler Campus Center. Inside the library, some students played board games and studied while others tried to sleep, though that was a challenge given what they could see outside.
Classes and final exams were canceled on Tuesday, and power was out on much of campus. The shelter-in-place protocol could be resumed if conditions worsened, the university warned.
Not everyone chose to stay on campus. Jessica Hooten Wilson, the Fletcher Jones chair of great books, fled with her husband and their four children, ages 1 to 11, around 1 a.m. Tuesday. They could smell smoke in their on-campus condo. As they left — so quickly that they didn’t pack clothes — they could feel the heat from the fire and see flames in the distance.
“The cell service wasn’t working,” Professor Hooten Wilson said. “I didn’t know if our friends were OK. We were just driving away with the flames in the hills in the background.”
The family drove about an hour to a hotel in Venturasuperph, Calif., where they encountered other Pepperdine faculty members and students who had fled. Professor Hooten Wilson said they had been told they would be able to return to campus no earlier than Wednesday night.