Los Angeles is seeing a frightening natural weather event — and its star-studded community has been impacted.
An extreme wind storm, caused by Santa Ana gusts, sparked fast-burning brush fires at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday, January 7, with drivers along Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive abandoning their cars to seek safety, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Local areas were evacuated, including the celebrity haven of Pacific Palisades, located about 20 miles west of Downtown L.A., where A-list stars are renowned for their sprawling luxury homes.
Stars including Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler, Michael Keaton, Miles Teller, Michael Mann, Ann Sarnoff, Alan Bergman, Kathleen Kennedy and Carol Lombardini all reside in the exclusive enclave.
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Mass evacuations, which have seen more than 30,000 locals leave their home in search of safer ground, affected Steve Guttenberg, who assisted firefighters by moving abandoned cars to nearby streets to improve emergency access. The Police Academy star said during an interview with KTLA on Tuesday, “I live right up the hill,” before pointing at visible flames. “I have friends up there right now, and they can’t evacuate because it’s stuck on Palisades Drive. There are families up there, there are pets up there, there are people who really need help.”
Casino star James Wood was also evacuated from his home, sharing photos and footage of raging flames via X on Tuesday.
One photo, which caught the flames and thick smoke gushing towards the sky, was captioned, “The view from one of our security cameras.”
A subsequent video was also captioned, “Leaving,” before another post from Woods read, “To all the wonderful people who’ve reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned. Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully. I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly, houses on our little street are not.”
Eugene Levy was also evacuated. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times over the phone on Tuesday, the Schitt’s Creek star said, “The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the National Weather Service labelled the wind storm a “particularly dangerous situation … Red Flag Warning event.” This type of alert affected Malibu, the San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains, Eastern Ventura Valley and coastal areas adjacent to the Sepulveda pass, per the outlet.
The Associated Press reported that more than 13,000 structures are “under threat” and the origin of the fires has not been confirmed.
The weather event also affected scheduled high-profile events in the area including the premieres for Jennifer Lopez’s new film Unstoppable, and Wolf Man starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner.
