Malibu has been crushed by the most destructive fire in the nearly 15 years, which destroyed almost 50 homes and forced thousands of residents to evacuate their places.

This is the second time in a month when wildfires ignited in multiple areas throughout Southern California leaving the area’s resources dry. This time only Malibu was ablaze. The fire started around 3:30 a.m. south of Malibu Lake and was driven by 60mph winds.

The so-called Corral fire burned 4,700 acres (1,882 Hectares) before the fierce Santa Ana winds died down, allowing the firefighters fight with the flames. In addition, almost 50 homes were destroyed, two outbuildings were demolished and 27 residents were damaged.  Almost 14,000 people were forced to evacuate, Los Angeles County fire officials said.

Latigo Canyon and the neighborhoods along Newell Road and Sea Breeze Drive were the most affected by the fire’s early hours.

Hundreds of fire fighters were pre-positioned across Southern California due to forecasters’ predictions of fire conditions this week especially that Santa Ana winds were racing wildly through the area. "If we had not had the pre-deployed firefighters, we could have lost a lot more homes than we did," said LA County Fire's Sam Padilla.

More than 1,700 firefighters, 15 helicopters and 12 fixed-wing aircraft helped at extinguishing the fire. Six fire fighters suffered minor injuries and they were taken to near hospitals for observation, according to Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson.

The bassist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Balzary, also known as Flea, was among those who lost their homes, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The authorities said that 25%of the fire was contained by the evening.

"We are making some progress. The fire is 25 percent contained. The winds are not as strong as they were this morning, which is a help," said Haralson, according to Reuters.

The danger is still there. "The firefighting operations will continue tonight. The fire is still fairly active on the east flank,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said late Saturday.

Suspicion is that campers in the area might have started the blaze, according to arson investigators. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. They want to find out whether the fire was started intentionally, said Fire Inspector Rick Dominguez.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reactivated the state of emergency he had declared last month in response to the wildfires in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego, according to a statement he released on Saturday afternoon.

More than 517,000 acres of ground burned, a dozen people died, more than 1,500 homes were destroyed and 250,000 residents fled during the two weeks fire in October. It was the largest evacuation in California’s history.