[dropcap size=big]F[/dropcap]our horses, stranded and dazed, stood at the top of a ridgeline on Kanan Dume Road in Malibu as the smoked-over orange sunset descended. The animals stared at us. They must have been let loose during the fire that ripped down hills and canyons in Malibu since Friday, when a dark cloud of smoke seemed to envelop the hills and beaches west of Los Angeles along the coast.
There was little else we could do but call up to them, and tell the horses that someone would be getting them soon. No winds. No imminent threat of flames, just a few hot-spots and flare-ups as crews assessed the damage left in sections of Malibu that burned after three days of fire in Ventura and L.A. counties.
Most of the smoke is now sitting over Los Angeles proper. More than 83,000 acres have burned and at least 177 structures are gone in the Woolsey Fire. Two people have died.
On Saturday, from the top of Latigo Canyon Road and Kanan Dume Road, the rural hills of Malibu were an ashen landscape, flattened down to dirt and ash. Hills that were once brush, trees, and buildings were now burned down to a ruddy composition. Only a few charred tree trunks survived. A few fire engines rolled to spots of smoldering ruins.