Malibu Burning
The Real Story Behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire
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Narrated by:
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Robert Kerbeck
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By:
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Robert Kerbeck
About this listen
Malibu is known as an earthly paradise of multi-million-dollar mansions, movie stars, and unimaginable natural beauty. But all that changed on November 8, 2018.
Go deep behind the scenes of the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history. Alongside his wife and son, Robert Kerbeck battled the fire that threatened to take their home. He knows firsthand how the Malibu fires affected everyone - from the rich and famous to the firefighters who often risked their lives.
Blending investigative journalism and personal memoir, Malibu Burning brings you on the dramatic, life-threatening journey of real people fighting 2,000-degree flames to save entire neighborhoods.
By listening to this audiobook, you'll find out:
- Ways how the massive blaze affected Julia Roberts, Bob Dylan, Nick Nolte, and other celebrities.
- Real stories from hundreds of interviews with perspectives of locals ranging from the deputy fire chief and Malibu city council members to residents who fought to defend their homes.
- People who survived this tragedy through courage, kindness, and unified cooperation.
This book takes you into the hearts and minds of those who fought for their lives while the world watched Malibu burning.
©2019 Robert Kerbeck (P)2019 Robert KerbeckListeners also enjoyed...
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In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolis - the largest, proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. This Is Chance! is the thrilling, cinematic story of a community shattered by disaster - and the extraordinary woman who helped pull it back together.
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amazing story
- By Dani L on 02-07-21
By: Jon Mooallem
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Storm of the Century
- The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
- By: Willie Drye
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1934, hundreds of jobless World War I veterans were sent to the remote Florida Keys to build a highway from Miami to Key West. The Roosevelt Administration was making a genuine effort to help these down-and-out vets. But the attempt to help them turned into a tragedy. The supervisors in charge of the veterans misunderstood the danger posed by hurricanes in the low-lying Florida Keys. The hurricane that struck the Upper Florida Keys on the evening of September 2, 1935, is still the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the US.
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Better than I expected
- By Jennifer Camp on 07-23-24
By: Willie Drye
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Full Body Burden
- Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
- By: Kristen Iversen
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Kristen Iversen
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.
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A story that no one else wanted to tell.
- By Carol on 01-28-13
By: Kristen Iversen
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Washed Away
- How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
- By: Geoff Williams
- Narrated by: Jim Vann
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The incredible story of a flood of near-Biblical proportions - its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America’s natural-disaster policies for the next century. The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It was the nation’s most widespread flood ever - more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless.
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I love these historical narratives
- By Kim Hamacher on 07-28-15
By: Geoff Williams
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Report from Ground Zero
- By: Dennis Smith
- Narrated by: Eric Conger, Jeff David, Don Leslie
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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Immediately after two hijacked jets struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Dennis Smith volunteered in the rescue effort. Having spent his career as both a respected writer and a member of one of the city's busiest firehouses, Smith became determined to use his unique background to tell the story of the disaster and its aftermath with the empathy and understanding that only an insider could bring to it. In this audio memoir, he has collected astonishing first-person testimony.
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Intersting choice of narrator
- By Sara Roltgen on 09-24-18
By: Dennis Smith
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1 Dead in Attic
- After Katrina
- By: Chris Rose
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor - in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair.
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Still Makes Me Hurt
- By Gillian on 02-27-15
By: Chris Rose
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Humboldt
- Life on America's Marijuana Frontier
- By: Emily Brady
- Narrated by: Dan Woren, Sonny Warner, Erin Bennett, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox, journalist Emily Brady journeys into a secretive subculture - one that marijuana built. Say the words "Humboldt County" to a stranger and you might receive a knowing grin. The name is infamous, and yet the place, and its inhabitants, have been nearly impenetrable. Until now. Humboldt is a narrative exploration of an insular community in Northern California, which for nearly 40 years has existed primarily on the cultivation and sale of marijuana.
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Great book!
- By David on 02-26-15
By: Emily Brady
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The Esperanza Fire
- Arson, Murder and the Agony of Engine 57
- By: John N. Maclean
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The Esperanza Fire started October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass near Cabazon, California. It destroyed 41,000 acres and dozens of homes and cost the taxpayers $16 million dollars. But by far the highest costs of the conflagration were the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first engine crew ever killed fighting a wildland blaze. Fire and superheated gases had erupted in a freak "area ignition," sending flames racing across three-quarters of a mile in mere seconds, engulfing the crew and the house they were defending.
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Read the "book reviews" on Amazon before judging.
- By IdyGal on 08-26-18
By: John N. Maclean
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American Fire
- Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land
- By: Monica Hesse
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to 67 counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice - his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants.
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Narration is horrible
- By Bryan Campbell on 08-17-17
By: Monica Hesse
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Wild Escape
- The Prison Break from Dannemora and the Manhunt That Captured America
- By: Chelsia Rose Marcius
- Narrated by: Christopher Price, Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 6, 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility, New York State's largest maximum security prison. The media was instantly obsessed with the story: aided by a prison seamstress who smuggled hacksaw blades, chisels, and drill bits inside the facility via a vat of raw hamburger meat, the two convicted murderers sliced their way through steel cell walls, meandered through a maze of tunnels, climbed out of a manhole, and walked off into the night.
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Awful
- By VT Lady on 07-23-18
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The Right Kind of Crazy
- Navy SEAL, Covert Operative, and Boy Scout from Hell
- By: Clint Emerson
- Narrated by: Clint Emerson
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Clint Emerson is the only SEAL ever inducted into the International Spy Museum. Operating from the shadows, with an instinct for running towards trouble, his unique skill set made him the perfect hybrid of elite and modern day counterintelligence agent. Emerson spent his career on the bleeding edge of intelligence and operations, often specializing in solo missions that took advantage of subterfuge, improvisation, the best in recon and surveillance tech, and even elements of Hollywood disguise to combat the changing global battlefield.
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Ignore the haters...
- By Witness 22 on 04-08-20
By: Clint Emerson
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Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
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The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
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A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear
- The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears)
- By: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness.
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Author's Political Biases Shine Through
- By Frank on 12-20-20
What listeners say about Malibu Burning
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angela M. Dokos
- 05-17-24
Very interesting
Very interesting book but what a horrible disaster! So many sad stories in this one little book. I can’t imagine enduring the losses and trauma these people had to deal with.
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- VP's
- 10-24-19
Wow!!!
Great book! Exe
I had my own experience during the Woolsey Fire but what a learned from Robert Kerbeck’s book It’s mind bottling.
Many different interviews, many different angles, his own family experience....WOW!
Amazing work!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Adventure Boy
- 06-05-22
A dramatic account of a suburban wildfire
This is a compelling account of the Woolsey fire in 2018 that will be of particular interest to persons near undeveloped land. During a wildfire, you should expect to lose water pressure and power. The biggest surprise for me is that during a large fire, you should not expect any assistance from the fire department. The author/narrator has a fine voice and is clear, but tries to add drama by pitching his voice higher and higher, which wore on me.
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- Enrico Patucci
- 09-30-20
A Riveting Must Listen and Read!
Our family listened to this book during an 8-hour drive which flew by because we were enthralled by the stories being told! The narration was superb! A must read or listen for Malibu residents as well as for those curious about Malibu. The book reveals personal stories from the horrific day the fires came roaring down out of the canyons into Western Malibu! It brought back memories of our evacuation as the fire crested the hill above us. It also covers the history, the natural beauty and character of Malibu as well as the events surrounding the Woolseyi Fire. I also brought the book to add to my Woolsey Fire collection. - Mary Rose Rodgers-Patucci
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- john
- 10-30-19
Behind The Scenes of Devastation
A true, bone-chilling, behind-the-scenes look into the devastating Woolsey Fire in November 2018. Each story was more shocking than the next. So many great stories of heroism and altruism. Kerbeck tells the story of his almost-deadly fight against the beast that was the Malibu fire, as well as other unfathomable stories of residents and non-residents all fighting to save their homes, animals and their beautiful town of Malibu.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Todd Bassman
- 11-18-19
Epic true Story about bravery and courage…
Malibu Burning is the untold story of the Woolsey Fire that devastated parts of LA and Malibu last year. Robert Kerbeck shares his own personal experience fighting the fire along with his wife Gardia and son Davis, in a manner that only someone who lived through it can. The story is moving and riveting and is hard to put down at times (well in my case stop listening to). I can imagine that reading the book is also excellent, however, in my opinion, listening to Robert tell the story of his own battle has to elevate the experience. In addition to his own personal experience, it’s the back story of all the research he has done with so many others who lived through this horrible tragedy that truly makes this a special book. I highly recommend this book to all of you.
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- J. Abramson
- 03-31-21
Enlightening , and upsetting.
Sad at how ill prepared the city of Malibu was for the last wildfire and is for the next wildfire. It is a beautiful area and this book explains all the diverse problems.
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- John Z. Shafai
- 05-01-20
An intense, well-written page-turner.
Not only did I purchase a hardcopy of the book, I downloaded it from audible to "read" it again. With its opening chapter, this book gets a grip on you. From that moment on, the book never lets go - a real page-turner. Simply put, once you commit to reading this, be warned: Once you start, you can’t put it down. It remains steadfastly a delightful read from beginning, though middle, to end. Even its organization is fascinating – presenting a series of vignettes covering different sets of real people in different neighborhoods – with each piece intensely focusing on each participant’s specific experience and the unique ways in which he or she dealt with the devastatingly tragic Woolsey Fire. So, like a series of independent adventure tales tied together around a central theme, the only difference here is that each of adventures really happened.
To be honest, the book was quite a surprise for me – a veritable eye-opener. Admittedly and, I’m afraid self-centeredly, I was initially drawn to the book solely because I wanted to see how the author dealt with the story of Engine 271, the subject matter of Chapter 2. Having been a call firefighter assigned to that engine, my Woolsey experience was different from other people’s experiences. I had been confined to the Corral Canyon neighborhood of Malibu throughout and after the fire. Dealing with my own hell, and cutoff from the rest of the world, I had no idea what was happening in the rest of Malibu and beyond. So the book opened up an entire panorama that had been unseen by me, and that had been otherwise unknown to me. Because of this book, I first learned how other residents in the other neighborhoods experienced the same fire and faced down flame lengths that at times could exceed 100 feet and carried temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
One of the many things I liked about the book was how it pierced the the veil of perceived glitz and glamor to shine a light on the true face of Malibu. Still rustic and stubbornly holding on to its frontier-town vibe, not everyone in Malibu is a stereotypical botoxed vapid celeb. With each vignette, the reader is treated to a real, down-to-earth person and gets to experience the fire though his or her eyes. By the end of each chapter, I felt like I knew each and every one of them. I felt close to them, and thus closer to “my” Malibu. The book also raises the tough questions of how the city and the fire department handled the Woolsey Fire. The book creates the space for compassion, healing, and points a path forward to prepare for the next catastrophic fire, which, with utmost certainty, will happen. If you’re looking for an intense, well-written page-turner, look no further. This is your book.
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- JC
- 12-30-19
A Must Read!
Malibu Burning is both insightful and heartbreaking. A small group of people that came together to battle a wildfire on their own as they fought to save neighbor’s homes and their own, as well as animals. We see a behind the scenes look at what it was like for the homeowner heroes who stayed and felt all alone when they asked for help from fire fighters and turned down because of bureaucratic jargon. Malibu Burning is told eloquently and passionately through the author’s first hand experience and his interviews.
An amazing book!
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1 person found this helpful