When the Palisades fire tore through a Malibu neighborhood, reducing homes and cars to rubble, Preston Martin assumed the retro blue Volkswagen van he once lived in during college was lost.

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 ...

LOS ANGELES -- Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen bus he slept in for a year during college was a goner, given that he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades ...

Terrill captured an image that would go viral as a "beacon of hope" — an apparently unscathed, baby-blue, retro Volkswagen van parked on a street amongst the burnt rubble of a Malibu ...

A RETRO blue VW van stands defiant after miraculously surviving the deadly Los Angeles wildfires. Stunned former owner Preston Martin, 24, assumed the 1977 Volkswagen Type 2 van had been consumed ...