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Pepperdine University and the University of California, Los Angeles, switched to remote classes this week while others in the L.A. metro area are preparing to resume operations even as the region faces still-burning wildfires that have devastated the region.

Over the weekend, city officials issued evacuation areas for areas near UCLA in Westwood, putting the campus on alert. UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk said Saturday afternoon that all classes would be held online until Friday, Jan. 17, and urged the campus community to stand ready in case an evacuation is ordered.

The Los Angeles region has been besieged by multiple fires in the last week, which have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and killed at least 16 people so far. Firefighters have struggled to contain the largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires; the strong winds that fueled the fires are expected to continue this week.

Colleges in the L.A. area closed their campuses last week and officials told employees to work from home. At the same time, they sought ways to help students, staff and faculty affected by the fires, including by raising money to support them. Campuses are also mobilizing to help the broader communities, creating Wi-Fi hotspots or transforming parking lots into community relief centers. Most of the colleges were on winter break, so many students weren’t on campus. Now some are gearing up to open their doors once again.

Pasadena City College, near where the Eaton fire has burned through more than 14,000 acres, will be open, though officials said in a campuswide email they are “mindful of the challenges many are facing.”

“Our goal is to provide a smooth return while extending grace and understanding to our students, faculty, and staff who have been most affected,” wrote José A. Gómez, president of Pasadena City College. “For those who need support, we are here to listen, to help, and to adapt as needed.”

Volunteers and college staff worked over the weekend to prepare the campus for reopening. That effort included power washing campus spaces and cleaning the air in buildings. The college will have bottled water and masks on hand for faculty, students and staff and will provide free meals to the campus community.

The California Institute of Technology also is resuming in-person classes Monday. Officials said the fires don’t pose a direct threat to the campus and that reopening will allow members of the campus community to access power, water, internet and other resources.

“Hundreds of Caltech’s staff, faculty, postdoctoral scholars and students have been impacted by mandatory evacuation orders and long-term power outages,” officials wrote in a campus email. “Initial reports indicate that dozens of Caltech community members may have lost their homes and personal belongings.”

Others, such as Glendale Community College, remain closed. For colleges, the decision to resume in-person classes and operations hinges on a variety of factors, including air quality, evacuation orders, the immediate threat to campus and the availability of water or gas.

At Pepperdine in Malibu, officials made the call to start the spring semester online in part because the gas company shut off the natural gas service to campus after the fires caused a few gas lines to rupture.

“Malibu’s gas service will be off until conditions improve enough to allow safe re-activation of the gas lines,” President Jim Gash wrote in a campus message. “These conditions will improve but will take some time, perhaps a week or more.”

The Palisades fire is about 2.5 miles from Pepperdine, but officials said the blaze doesn’t pose a threat. That’s in part because a burn scar from the December 2024 Franklin fire sits between the blaze and the campus.

Gash told Fox News on Saturday that while the buffer protects the campus, dozens in the Pepperdine community have lost their homes.

Gash said the areas devastated by the fires look like a war zone and that this is “one of the most stressful times that the city has endured.”

While Pepperdine and the region have faced fires before, Gash told Fox News that this one is “materially different.”

“The other ones were scary and intense,” he added. “This is so widespread and so fast moving with heavy winds that this is an order of magnitude larger, particularly given what is happening in the greater Southern California area with the Eaton fire and Kenneth fire … This one seems to be a level above the rest.”

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