A Malibu couple fleeing the Franklin fire with their 3 goats, a potbellied pig

Jessica Jones and Matthew Ryder took their essentials before the Franklin fire reached their Serra Retreat home.

Important documents. Garment bags. Three goats. A potbellied pig.

Jones and Ryder, both 37 years old, saw flames coming down the road leading to their rented farm around 11.30pm on Monday.

Escaping a wildfire is stressful enough, but adding livestock to the mix can complicate matters.

The goats, kids Willie and Russell and mom Ginger, were easy enough to wrangle in the back of the couple’s truck.

But the one-year-old pig, Penelope, fought back when it was time to go.

“He was screaming his head off,” Ryder said. “He doesn’t like to be picked up in general.”

The fire reached the area as the couple were leaving around midnight, and they waited on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway to plan where they would go next. They slept in their truck in the parking lot on the hiking trails and arrived at the Palisades Park evacuation center around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“It was crazy,” Jones said.

“Bright red flames and the glow of the fire were all around the cliff as we walked.”

Jones, who grew up in the Australian outback, is familiar with packing supplies to prepare for wildfires but felt like the fire caught him off guard.

“I wish we had caught more things or prepared better for this,” he said. “I guess you could say we were comfortable.”

“You always hear about wildfires and Santa Ana winds around Malibu,” said Ryder, who has lived in the area for about two years. “But you don’t really think until the fire comes down the hills.”

The couple planned to return home once the Pacific Coast Highway reopened, but it was not clear when that would happen.

The eastern part of Malibu was ordered to be evacuated, and the entire city was under an evacuation warning, affecting about 18,000 people. More than 2,000 buildings are covered by the evacuation order, and another 6,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a press conference Tuesday morning that “a small number” of homes were destroyed, although he did not have an exact number of damaged structures. He urged residents to reduce the use of lawn sprinklers to maintain water pressure for firefighters.

About 700 firefighters were fighting the blaze on Tuesday morning, building containment lines while a plane dropped water on the fire. The plane was able to fly through the night and into the morning in strong winds, Marrone said.

At 8:30 in the morning, Willie the goat was wandering around the parking lot on a leash, and Penelope the pig was quietly dozing off in space.