The wildfires ravaging Southern California are making no exceptions for fancy neighborhoods like the Pacific Palisades, where Hollywood couple Adam Brody and Leighton Meester and “Scary Movie” star Anna Faris reportedly lost their homes Wednesday.
TMZ posted aerial footage of demolished properties said to belong to those celebrities. The outlet added to the list later in the day with further footage that showed million-dollar mansions owned by Billy Crystal, John Goodman and Eugene Levy obliterated to piles of debris.
As dry conditions and powerful Santa Ana winds fueled the fires, they continued to move west, spreading toward picturesque properties in Malibu. A beachfront home belonging to Paris Hilton was reportedly reduced to rubble Wednesday afternoon. The property is not Hilton’s primary residence, TMZ reported.
“It’s all gone. I can’t believe I am typing these words,” actor and TV host Ricki Lake posted on Instagram after losing her own Malibu home Wednesday. She said she and her husband planned to grow old together in the beloved abode where they got married in 2022.
Pacific Palisades homes owned by Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck, Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Keaton and James Woods were also in danger as the flames consumed the once-exquisite area. Nearly 16,000 acres had been burned by the Palisades Fire as of Wednesday afternoon, according to CalFire.
It wasn’t immediately clear if any of those stars’ homes had been destroyed. Hanks’ son Chet Hanks wrote on Instagram that the neighborhood where he was raised was “burning to the ground.“
Woods, who tearfully told CNN on Wednesday that his home was at the “epicenter” of the fire, posted photos of his blazing neighborhood on social media.
“To all the wonderful people who’ve reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned,” Woods wrote. “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.”
“Star Wars” star Mark Hamill said his family fled their Malibu home “so last minute” Tuesday night before the flames raged out of control. He said the fires he’s seen this week are the worst he’s experienced in more than 30 years.
Los Angeles station KTLA caught “Police Academy” star Steve Guttenberg playing the role of action star on Palisades Drive, where he was helping to move abandoned cars so firefighters could pass.
“What’s happening is people take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot,” he complained to viewers. “If you leave your car behind, leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these firetrucks can get up there.”
The flames ravaging the area were at 0% containment late Wednesday afternoon, according to fire officials. Roughly 1,000 structures had been destroyed and more than 13,000 were under threat by the Palisades Fire.
While that area was especially hard hit, L.A. City officials said emergency crews faced “unprecedented conditions” while fighting four life-threatening fires in the county.
“This Is Us” star Mandy Moore said she and her family successfully fled their home, which appeared to be in the path of the Eaton Fire, the second-largest inferno cooking the lower West Coast.
“Trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel,” Moore posted on Instagram. She fled with her musician husband, Taylor Goldsmith, and their three children.
The Eaton Fire, burning north of Pasadena, had swept across more than 10,000 acres by Wednesday afternoon and claimed the lives of at least five people.
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