Michael Jackson’s notorious Neverland ranch came perilously close to being torched by California’s largest wildfire of the year, with crews still battling to contain the still-raging fire.
The late pop superstar’s fairytale home in Santa Barbara was directly in the path of the Lake Fire, the Los Angeles Times said Friday of a blaze that has grown to nearly 37,000 acres in a week and remains only 16% contained.
“It came down less than a mile from [the property],” Cal Fire spokesperson Kenichi Haskett told the LA paper.
“We already had firefighters in the area with their engines and their packs ready to go.”
The fire, easily the largest in the Golden State so far this week, started moving closer to Nervland on Sunday, the paper noted of the controversial Santa Ynez Valley home where the King of Pop was long accused — but ultimately acquitted — of molesting young boys.
Fire crews took up battle positions in the region to protect Neverland and neighboring properties, with the main initial threat seemingly successfully thwarted by Tuesday, officials said even as the blaze continues threatening the region.
“We had a lot of air support with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft,” Capt. Scott Safechuck, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, told the LA Times.
“That whole area was defended very well. We have firefighters remaining in there mopping up and ensuring those hot spots are completely out.”
Jackson bought the 2,700-acre estate for close to $20 million in the late 1980s before turning it into his own personal Peter Pan-inspired amusement park with rides and even a zoo.
It will be a backdrop for the upcoming MJ biopic “Michael”, which stars the controversial icon’s 27-year-old nephew Jaafar.
It is not clear if anyone lives on the property, which was under evacuation orders since Sunday, when flames fast approached, the LA Times said.
It is also unusual for the ranch to face a wildfire risk — but recent temperatures at least 10 degrees above normal are thought to have fueled the flames.
“It’s quite abnormal for that area,” Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the outlet.
Neverland has been associated with lurid claims against Jackson, who died at age 50 in 2009 from an acute drug overdose.
Jackson faced 14 charges including seven counts of child molestation and two counts of giving alcohol to a minor in a child sex abuse probe, but was acquitted of all charges in June 2005. At that point, he stopped visiting Neverland.
Billionaire Ron Burkle, co-founder of investment firm Yucaipa Companies and a former associate of Jackson, purchased the Los Olivos, Calif., property for $22 million in 2020.
In 2016, it was reported Jackson allegedly had a triple-locked secret closet in Neverland Ranch filled with photos of naked boys and children’s toys.
Three years later, the documentary “Leaving Neverland” focused on the stories of two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who alleged Jackson sexually abused them as children at the ranch, as well as other locations.