By Hannah Lang, Brendan O’Brien and Lisa Richwine
Jamie Lee Curtis, Mandy Moore, Maria Shriver and other celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes to escape the out-of-control wildfires burning around Los Angeles.
The largest blaze consumed nearly 12,000 acres (4,856 hectares) in Pacific Palisades, a picturesque neighborhood between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu that is home to many film, television and music stars.
“Heartbreaking, devastating, beyond belief,” Shriver, a journalist and the former first lady of California when she was married to former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, wrote on X on Wednesday. “Everything is gone. Our neighborhood, our restaurants.”
“The firefighters have and are doing their best,” Shriver added, “but this fire is massive and out of control.”
The day after actor James Woods evacuated his house in Pacific Palisades, he said “every house around us was on fire.”
“We were literally in the exact epicenter of the fire as it started,” Woods, known for roles in “Ghosts of Mississippi” and “Any Given Sunday,” said on CNN on Wednesday. “There was so much chaos. It was like an inferno.”
The disaster disrupted several Hollywood events just as the annual awards season was kicking off. This weekend’s Critics Choice Awards was delayed by two weeks, and next week’s Oscar nominations announcement was postponed by two days, organizers said.
Strong, dry winds fanned the Palisades blaze, and the area’s narrow, winding streets combined with the rush of thousands of people ordered to evacuate created long delays and traffic jams.
“It is surreal here in Los Angeles,” actor Henry Winkler wrote on X. “It is biblical. So many people have lost everything.”
Oscar winner Curtis said she was safe but “my community and possibly my home is on fire.” – Reuters
