It was a typical sunny Sunday afternoon in Santa Monica, with scores of people enjoying the beach, having brunch and walking their dogs.
But just up Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades and eastern Malibu, authorities were preparing to wage a ground war on any conflagrations that might rise up as fast and excessively dry winds were expected to whip across the region in the coming days.
There are 5,677 fire and law enforcement personnel assigned to the blaze, including workers from Canada, Israel and South Africa, said Dan Collins, public information officer for the Palisades fire…