LOS ANGELES — Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen bus he slept in for a 12 months throughout faculty was a goner, provided that he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood simply earlier than the Palisades hearth ripped by means of, decreasing properties and vehicles to rubble and charred metallic.
So the surfboard maker was shocked to search out that the automobile survived. Not solely that, a photograph of the colourful bus taken by an Related Press photographer was circulating extensively on tv and on-line, giving viewers a measure of pleasure.
“There may be magic in that van,” Martin, 24, mentioned Tuesday in an interview with AP. “It is not sensible why this occurred. It ought to have been toasted, however right here we’re.”
A VW bus sits amongst burned out properties, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif.
AP Photograph/Mark J. Terrill
Martin bought the 1977 Volkswagen Sort 2 considerably on a whim someday round his junior 12 months finding out mechanical engineering on the College of California, Santa Barbara.
His mom, Tracey Martin, of Irvine, yelled at him for blowing his cash, however Martin instructed her he’d save on lease by fixing up the within and dwelling in it his senior 12 months, which he did. She got here to like the bus, and sewed curtains for the home windows.
Final summer season, he offered it to his buddy and enterprise associate, Megan Krystle Weinraub, 29, who designs surf and skate boards below the Vibrant Boards model. Martin makes carbon fiber surfboards below Starlite.
On Jan. 5, the chums went browsing with the bus, which Weinraub calls Azul – Spanish for “blue.” Afterward Martin parked it on a flat spot up the hill from her condominium by the Getty Villa, as she continues to be studying to drive the handbook transmission.
Two days later the Palisades hearth erupted, and Weinraub fled along with her canine, Bodi, and a few pet food in her major automobile. She felt unhappy about Azul, however that was minor in contrast with those that misplaced properties or family members.
On Thursday a neighbor despatched her a photograph. Within the background was the bus, nonetheless blue and white and under no circumstances broken.
“I freaked out,” she mentioned. “I used to be within the rest room, and I screamed.”
She known as Martin, who additionally freaked out. He known as his mother, who was ecstatic. “I’ve by no means cried for a automobile earlier than,” Tracey Martin texted her son.
They have been much more shocked when AP picture aired on tv and popped up on-line.
“We made the information,” Martin mentioned in a reel on Instagram web page, and Weinraub contacted the photographer.
Weinraub, whose dwelling survived, has not been capable of go to Azul as a result of the world stays closed to the general public. The 2 are thrilled that the bus’ survival has touched so many individuals.
“It is so cool that it is grow to be this, like, beacon of hope,” Martin mentioned. “All the things round it was toasted, simply destroyed. After which this is this vibrant blue shiny van, sitting proper there.”
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