From Paris Hilton to James Woods to Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. They were all victims of the fire disaster
It’s them strongest wildfires in decades. New dimensions even for the disaster-hardened Los Angeles region. The flames are not only raging in the “Hills”. Strong winds carried the wall of fire all the way down to the Pacific coast of Malibu.
An area with a high density of A-list celebrities and correspondingly posh properties. US media are now documenting with horror the strokes of fate of numerous VIPs. Heiress Paris Hilton announced on social media. She would be “heartbroken” that her beach house “burned down live on TV.”
“The loss is overwhelming”
The $8 million chalet, now nothing but burnt rubble, was intended as a second or third home for the Hiltons and was also used to produce the Netflix show “Cooking With Paris.” “This house was the place with which we have so many memories. (..) The loss is overwhelming, but I am grateful that my family and pets are safe,” she says on her Instagram account.
The actors Mark Hamill (“Star Wars”) and James Woods as well as singer and actress Mandy Moore were even more dramatically affected because the private homes fell victim to the flames. Comedian and singer Billy Crystal, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Affleck (who evacuated his three children to his ex Jennifer Garner) are also affected, according to the gossip platform “Page Six”. Photos of smoking rubble show the extent.
James Woods:
James Woods, 77, fought back tears during a CNN interview on Wednesday (Jan. 8): “I thought I was stronger than all of this,” he said. He talked to his wife Sarah about it with his 8-year-old niece, who then took out her piggy bank “so we can rebuild our house.” With the courage of despair, he assessed: “Yesterday you swam in the pool and the next day everything is gone.”
Star Wars actor Hamill said on his Insta account that he was “evacuated at the last minute due to numerous small fires on both sides of the street.” In his memory, it would be the “most terrible fire” since the “Kinneloa Fire” of October 1993, when flames fanned by the Santa Ana winds devastated the area around the San Gabriel Mountains.
“Fires spread around football fields in seconds”
Aboveshore actress Jamie Lee Curtis tearfully said on Jimmy Aellon’s TV show: “The entire Pacific Palisades region is burning. Terrible, it’s my home. Everything gone. The market where I shop. The schools my children go to. Many, many, many, many, many friends have lost their homes.
Drummer Travis Barker of the LA band Blink-182 had to evacuate his showbiz-famous children Alabama and Landon from the fire. “We were told the fires spread around football fields in seconds,” said an Insta message from 21-year-old Landon Barker (“Over You”)
Even legendary music venues like Zach Brandon’s Harbor Studio, which once belonged to the jazz-rock band Weather Report, are now nothing more than a simmering pile of junk. Nicki Minaj and rapper Doja Cat recently recorded their albums here. “I cried this morning. Not just because Harbor burned down, but because I realized that Harbor had been taken away from so many artists who cared so deeply about it. A place of musical freedom… a refuge in the truest sense of the word. I loved it.”
Brandon is determined to rebuild his studio. Ariane Grande, Billie Eilish and Shawn Mendes (who are not directly affected) are calling on their millions of followers to donate to local charities and show solidarity with the “iron-fighting” LA fire department.