“Extremely dangerous” wind warning once again for Southern California

Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen van he slept in for a year during college was gone when he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades Fire swept through, reducing houses and cars to rubble and charred metal.

So the surfboard manufacturer was amazed to discover that the vehicle survived. Not only that, a photo of the lively bus taken by an Associated Press photographer circulated widely on television and online, giving viewers some joy.

“There’s magic in that van,” Martin, 24, said Tuesday in an interview with the AP. “It makes no sense why it happened. It should have been toast, but here we are.”

The neighborhood remains closed to the public, and neither Martin nor the friend and business partner he sold the van to last summer, Megan Krystle Weinraub, have been able to inspect the vehicle. In other photos of the van, it appears to have soot on the windows, Martin said.

Martin bought the 1977 Volkswagen Type 2 somewhat on a whim sometime around his junior year studying mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

His mother, Tracey Martin of Irvine, yelled at him for blowing his money, but Martin told her he wanted to save on rent by fixing up the interior and living in it his senior year, which he did. She came to love the bus and sewed curtains for the windows.

Last summer, he sold the van to Weinraub, 29, who designs surf and skateboards under the brand Vibrant Boards. Martin makes carbon fiber surfboards under Starlite.

On January 5, the friends went surfing with the van, which Weinraub calls Azul – Spanish for “blue”. Afterwards, Martin parked it on a flat spot up the hill from her apartment at the Getty Villa, as she is still learning how to drive the manual transmission.

Two days later, the Palisades Fire broke out, and Weinraub fled with his dog, Bodi, and some dog food in his primary car. She was sorry for Azul, but it was insignificant compared to those who lost their homes or their loved ones.