LOS ANGELES (AP) — As wildfires raging in the mountains cast an orange glow behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, Southern California residents were jolted awake Thursday by another reminder of Mother Nature’s might.
It was an all-too-familiar feeling for locals when a 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area, unleashing boulders onto a Malibu road, shaking Santa Monica’s 1909 wooden pier and waking some people from bed. No injuries or damages were immediately reported.
The quake happened as the region has been dealing with three major wildfires burning east of Los Angeles that torched dozens of homes and forced thousands to evacuate. The blazes erupted during a blistering heat wave that has just subsided.
“It’s a garden-variety Southern California earthquake,” California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones said.
Officials around the region said authorities were surveying for damage, but had not found anything major.
Malibu Councilmember Bruce Silverstein said he has lived in the community for 13 years and this was the hardest quake yet, but nothing broke.
“Our house shook for about two or three seconds. I was concerned the windows were going to pop,” Silverstein said.
A camera at the 115-year-old Santa Monica Pier, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Malibu, showed several seconds of intense shaking during the quake. Several morning newscasts also captured the earthquake live as cameras shook in television studios.
A crew was working on clearing large boulders that rolled onto Malibu Canyon Road, near the epicenter, KTLA-TV reported
