A retro blue VW van miraculously survives deadly Los Angeles fire

A VW van sits among burned out homes, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen van he slept in for a year during college was a goner, given that he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades fire ripped through, reducing homes and cars to rubble and charred metal.

So the surfboard maker was stunned to find that the vehicle survived. Not only that, a photo of the vibrant bus taken by an Associated Press photographer was circulating widely on television and online, giving viewers a measure of joy.

“There is magic in that van,” Martin, 24, said Tuesday in an interview with AP. “It makes no sense why this happened. It should have been toasted, but here we are.”

Martin purchased 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’d save on rent by fixing up the inside 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 his friend and business partner, Megan Krystle Weinraub, 29, who designs surf and skate boards under the Vibrant Boards brand. Martin makes carbon fiber surfboards under Starlite.

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

Two days later the Palisades fire erupted, and Weinraub fled with her dog, Bodi, and some dog food in her primary car. She felt sad about Azul, but that was minor compared with those who lost homes or loved ones.

On Thursday a neighbor sent her a photo. In the background was the bus, still blue and white and not at all damaged.

“I freaked out,” she said. “I was in the bathroom, and I screamed.”

She called Martin, who also freaked out. He called his mom, who was ecstatic. “I’ve never cried for a car before,” Tracey Martin texted her son.

They were even more surprised when AP photo aired on television and popped up online.

“We made the news,” Martin said in a reel on Instagram page, and Weinraub contacted the photographer.

Weinraub, whose home survived, has not been able to visit Azul because the area remains closed to the public. The two are thrilled that the van’s survival has touched so many people.

“It’s so cool that it’s become this, like, beacon of hope,” Martin said. “Everything around it was toasted, just destroyed. And then here’s this bright blue shiny van, sitting right there.”

Janie Har, The Associated Press