The city of Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency as wildfires rage in the Pacific Palisades enclave, burning about 5,000 acres of land as of Wednesday morning. The blaze as of press time is uncontained. Many celebrities with large social media platforms call the area home, and have been publicly sharing their experiences under the region’s mandatory evacuation order, which impacts more than 30,000 people.
The Palisades fire began Tuesday morning, enveloping some 200 acres within an hour, and has continued to grow rapidly since. As of Wednesday morning, the fire department named three more fires causing significant damage within the county: The Eaton Fire, in an area inland near Pasadena, the Hurst Fire, close to Los Angeles National Forest, and the Woodley Fire near the Sepulveda Basin.
The LA County Fire Department has employed bulldozers to barrel through abandoned cars in the area’s streets, pleading in public announcements for people leaving their cars behind to leave the keys in the ignition so that emergency responders can move them and get through more easily. Highways are facing major gridlock as people evacuate, and winds in the area stoke worry that the fires will continue to spread.
Some celebrities, like Police Academy star and Palisades resident Steve Guttenberg, jumped into action to help their neighbors. Guttenberg has been assisting firefighters by moving cars. In an interview on local news channel KTLA, he said, “What’s happening is people take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot. This is not a parking lot. We really need people to move their cars.” He urged evacuees to leave their keys in the car and “don’t worry about your personal property. Just get out.”
Reality stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Pratt shared a TikTok Wednesday with videos of the home that they share with their two sons engulfed in flames. Spencer captioned the clip, “Nightmare came true.” Spencer’s sister, Stephanie Pratt, shared on Instagram Tuesday night that she is in London and the fires also appear to be nearing her own home. “Help me what’s my next move,” she wrote in her post’s caption.
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill posted early Wednesday morning on Instagram that he had evacuated his Malibu home Tuesday evening along with wife Marilou and their dog, Trixie. “Most horrific fire since ‘93,” he wrote in the text-only image. “STAY SAFE!” In the post’s caption, he corrected a slight typo in the image, adding, “gimme a break—we were fleeing for our lives.”
The neighborhood’s “honorary mayor,” Schitt’s Creek star Eugene Levy, told the LA Times that he was evacuating. “The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon,” he told the outlet. “I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark.”
Vice President Kamala Harris owns a home in the area with Doug Emhoff, and spokesperson Ernesto Apreza confirmed on X that though the house is in the evacuation area, no one was in their home at the time. Harris shared her own statement offering prayers for those affected, and urging residents to listen to authorities and evacuate for safety. “Take care of each other,” she wrote.
Hours after posting snaps of her newly received albums of photos of the new baby she welcomed last year, Mandy Moore wrote on her Instagram Story late Tuesday night that she was “evacuated and safe with kids, dog, and cats. Praying and grateful for the first responders.” In a subsequent Story, she wrote that she was “trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel.” She added, “Don’t know if our place made it.”
Actor James Woods shared videos on X (formerly Twitter) of flames billowing around his home, saying that though he didn’t know whether his house was safe, he and his family are. In another update, he said that he and wife Sara had finished renovating their home last month, but that “There is no possession as priceless as friends and good neighbors during a tragedy. I can’t believe the blessings we enjoy, and I am humbly grateful.” In still more social media posts, he criticized the city’s fire chief and pointed fingers at “liberal idiots…[who] elect liberal idiots,” denying that the fires were related to climate change.
