Hollywood stars including Mark Hamill and Mandy Moore were among the thousands of residents sent fleeing as raging wildfires tore through Los Angeles, consuming homes, threatening iconic buildings and bringing the heart of the film industry to a halt.
Two people have been killed and more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said Wednesday.
Actor Mark Hamill shared on Instagram that he evacuated Malibu “so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road,” calling it the “most horrific fire” he had seen since the Kinneloa fire of 1993.
“My community and possibly my home is on fire,” Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis said in a post on Instagram, adding that while her family is safe, many of her friends may lose their homes.
“It is a terrifying situation and I’m grateful to the firefighters and all of the good Samaritans who are helping people get out of the way of the blaze,” she said.
Mandy Moore said in an Instagram story that she had evacuated safely with her kids, dog and cat.
“Praying for everyone in our beautiful city,” she wrote. “So gutted for the destruction and loss.”
At least three separate blazes are still burning in the metropolitan area, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena, fanned by a intense winds. Around 30,000 residents are under evacuation orders.
Steve Futterman, reporting from the Pacific Palisades area of L.A., says high winds are driving raging wildfires — and causing issues for fire crews trying to contain the dangerous fires.
James Woods, known for The Virgin Suicides and Disney’s Hercules, shared numerous videos of the blaze on X taken before he evacuated, including one where flames crackled through a neighbour’s home.
Actor Steve Guttenberg described a scene of chaos as he helped people scrambling to evacuate his Pacific Palisades neighbourhood on Tuesday.
“The entire Palisades drive was a parking lot. You could not get down,” he said, adding that some panicked residents locked their cars when they abandoned them in the middle of the road, making it so fire crews couldn’t move them. Some of his neighbours were unable to evacuate because the roads were so packed.
The actor, known for films such as Police Academy and Three Men and a Baby, said that bulldozers had to be brought in to shift the cars so fire trucks could get through.
When he drove down Sunset Boulevard, his home was nearly unrecognizable, with burning trees falling into the street and local landmarks consumed by flames.
“The Pierson Playhouse, which is our live theatre playhouse, is on fire. The woman’s club is on fire,” he said.
“This is the most unbelievable fire that I’ve ever — anybody’s ever seen.”
SAG nominations, movie premieres cancelled
Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk near Los Angeles will be closed Wednesday due to “the extreme winds and fire conditions,” according to a post on X from Universal Studios Hollywood.
The Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations cancelled an in-person announcement planned for Wednesday morning due to the fires. The nominations were slated to be announced at a live event hosted by actors Joey Kind and Cooper Koch, but instead were announced by press release.
As the flames advance, there’s been a rolling set of cancellations for film and TV premieres slated to take place in Los Angeles.
Amazon pulled the plug on the premiere for Jennifer Lopez’s Unstoppable and Universal cancelled the world premiere for the Blumhouse horror film Wolf Man, both slated to take place Tuesday night.
Since then, Paramount has also cancelled their Wednesday night L.A. premiere for Better Man, a Robbie Williams biopic, and the upcoming Max medical drama series The Pitt cancelled its red carpet in Los Angeles, which was set to take place on Wednesday.