Malibu couple escapes Franklin fire with their 3 goats, potbellied pig

Jessica Jones and Matthew Ryder grabbed their essentials before the Franklin fire made its way to their home in Serra Retreat.

Important documents. Bags of clothes. Three goats. A potbellied pig.

Jones and Ryder, both 37, saw the flames coming down a ridgeline overlooking the ranch they rent sometime around 11:30 p.m. Monday.

Fleeing a wildfire is stressful enough, but adding livestock to the mix can complicate matters.

The goats, kids Willie and Russell and mother Ginger, were easy enough to wrangle into the back of the couple’s pickup truck.

But the 1-year-old pig, Penelope, put up a fight when it was time to leave.

“She was screaming her head off,” Ryder said. “She doesn’t like to be picked up usually.”

The fire reached the property as the couple left around midnight, and they waited on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway to plan where to go next. They slept in their truck in a parking lot for hiking trails and arrived at the Palisades Park evacuation center around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“It was insane,” Jones said.

A hillside burns during the Franklin fire in Malibu.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

“The bright red flames and glow of the fire were all around the ridgeline as we were leaving.”

Jones, who grew up in the Australian brush, is familiar with packing up for wildfires but felt like this fire caught her a bit off guard.

“I wish we had grabbed more stuff or been better prepared this time around,” she said. “I guess you could say we were a bit complacent.”

“You always hear about wildfires and the Santa Ana winds around Malibu,” said Ryder, who has lived in the area for about two years. “But you never really give it much thought until a fire is marching down the hillsides.”

The couple planned to head back home once Pacific Coast Highway reopened, but it remained unclear when that would happen.

The eastern half of Malibu was ordered evacuated, and the rest of the city was under an evacuation warning, affecting roughly 18,000 people. More than 2,000 structures are covered by the evacuation order, and an additional 6,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a news conference Tuesday morning that a “minimal number” of homes had been destroyed, though he did not have an exact count of structures damaged. He urged residents to limit the use of lawn sprinklers to maintain water pressure for firefighters.

About 700 firefighters were battling the fire Tuesday morning on the ground, building containment lines as aircraft dropped water on the blaze. The aircraft were able to fly through most of the night and into the early morning even amid heavy winds, Marrone said.

By 8:30 a.m., Willie the goat was roaming around a parking lot on a leash, and Penelope the pig dozed quietly in a carrier.