Pacific Palisades wildfires: Celebrities share updates

Large parts of Los Angeles County are under evacuation orders Wednesday as massive wildfires spread through the megacity’s hilltop suburbs.

As of 9:30 a.m. EST, the state of California is tracking three active wildfires in the Los Angeles area, together measuring close to 4,500 acres in size and none of them contained by firefighting efforts.

By far the largest is the palisades fire, a near-3,000-acre blaze in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, located between the Santa Monica and Malibu coastlines and home to many Hollywood celebrities.

Here is what some of the stars are seeing from their backyards:

James Woods

Emmy-award-winning actor James Woods is among the evacuees, according to a number of posts from his X account. Starting Tuesday afternoon, Woods began sharing short clips that appear to have been shot in his yard, first showing wildfire smoke billowing through the neighbourhood, then fires spreading across nearby homes.

“Standing in my driveway, getting ready to evacuate,” Woods is heard saying in a clip posted shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday, local time. “We’ve got a lot of planes going over, dropping water, but…”

 

By the time of one clip said to be shot late that afternoon, Woods’ yard becomes enshrouded in a haze of smoke, broken only by bright orange flames flaring up from down the hill. 

 

Woods later shared he had safely exited the area, sharing one more video clip of clear skies filmed before things took a turn for the worse.

“It tests your soul, losing everything at once, I must say,” he wrote.

Eric Braeden

The star of The Young and the Restless shared a video to his Instagram page of fire and smoke flaring just beyond the edge of his backyard.

“Behind my house! The worst EVER in LA!” Braeden wrote.

 

Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag

The TV personalities and The Hills alumni were among those impacted by the Palisades fire, with Spencer Pratt sharing a pair of videos to his TikTok account.

“We’ve got a fire going on behind the house, here,” Pratt says into the camera with plumes of smoke crossing the sky behind him. “Say a prayer for the Palisades.”

This screengrab shows a firefighting plane making a pass over Los Angeles (Spencer Pratt via Instagram)

 

Mark Hamill

The renowned Star Wars star updated fans on his Instagram page, writing that he had fled Malibu “so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road.”

“Most horrific fire since ’93,” he wrote. “STAY SAFE!”

 

Steve Guttenberg

A local TV news station covering the wildfires crossed paths with Police Academy star Steve Guttenberg, who urged residents abandoning their vehicles to leave behind their keys to aid emergency workers.

“If anybody has a car, and they leave their car, leave the keys in the car so that we can move your car, so that these fire trucks can get up Palisades Drive,” he told reporters. “People take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot. This is not a parking lot.”

This is a developing story. More details to come…