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Bluff Collapses in La Jolla

As San Diego Fire-Rescue officials investigated a bluff collapse in La Jolla Friday, several people watched the activity while floating in a backyard pool hanging over the erosion in California.

San Diego Lifeguards had the beach blocked off below the home on Sea Ridge Drive, south of Bird Rock soon after the collapse was reported at 1:15 p.m.

There was a large amount of material on the beach, lifeguards said.

A section of the cliff directly beneath the corner of a backyard patio appeared to be missing. As a result, some pipes were visible, and water from the pool started leaking down the cliff side, officials said.

Two men in SDFD uniforms walked to the edge of the patio to survey the damage. In the meantime, several women continued to swim in the pool.

After a city engineer arrived to inspect the damage, he placed a yellow card on the home, which means you can enter the house but not the backyard.

The people in the home are renting it for vacation this week. Fire officials say people were inside the pool at the time of the collapse, but no one was injured.

The renters were given another house in which they can finish their vacation, according to the SDFD.

Ed Wrench, a next-door neighbor, said he has been watching the bluff erode since he moved in during the 1950s. He fears his backyard might fall to the beach one day.

"I haven't been down to the beach for the last six months probably, but the last time I looked, there's probably no dirt back to where [his] fence is right now. The concrete is just hanging off the edge." 

When he was a child, he said, the cliff extended another 15 feet.

Officials are waiting on a geologist to determine what caused the sudden erosion.

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