The Malibu fires

Like everyone else, we feel terrible about the fires in Malibu, Calif. that are ravaging the oceanfront community. Not all of the owners of the three homes that had been destroyed as of Sunday afternoon had yet been identified, although there’s little doubt that at least one homeowner will wind up being a celebrity.

As has been widely reported, the Castle Kashan (wreckage pictured), which had been for sale for $17 million, was one of the houses that the fires destroyed. Although it wasn’t directly in the path of the fires, traveling burnt embers landed on the mock-Scottish castle/charity locale, at 23800 Malibu Crest Drive, and burned it down. We wrote about the house back on January 12.

Some other observations on the fires:

–TMZ.com is reporting that Castle Kashan was in escrow and had been expected to close on Friday. To us, that’s astonishingly bad luck. We aren’t in a position to dispute TMZ’s report, although it is a little odd that the massive castle did not appear to have been listed in Los Angeles County’s MLS in the last few months. We sure hope that the castle’s longtime owner, socialite Lily Lawrence, had lots of fire insurance.

–One clearly affected celebrity whose name has not yet been mentioned in the news coverage is actor Matthew Perry, whose Malibu home is on Sweetwater Canyon Road. We wrote about Perry’s house last December 12. Perry very, very quietly purchased the 3,677-square-foot house, at 3556 Sweetwater Mesa Road, in April 2005 through his Alvy Singer Trust for $6,550,000.

Here’s hoping that firefighters rapidly contain the fire, and that no further damage takes place.

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