Dennis Quaid grew emotional Friday as he revealed that he had been evacuated from his Brentwood home amid the catastrophic Los Angeles fires.
Beginning this Tuesday, the area was struck by its worst windstorms in over a decade, fueling fires that have destroyed thousands of structures and claimed at least 11 lives over the course of the week.
About 130,000 people were put under evacuation orders or warnings, as the authorities sent out K-9 units trained to detect human remains in the wreckage.
One blaze in the Pacific Palisades has consumed a number of celebrity homes, including residences owned by Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges, Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman, Miles Teller, Tina Knowles and Anna Faris.
Now Dennis Quaid, 70, has shared that he too was forced to leave his property, though he counted himself ‘lucky’ as he has ‘so many friends’ who experienced worse.
‘My agent, he lost both of his houses, and another good friend over in the Palisades, he just moved into a house and he was renting the other one and he lost both of ‘em,’ the Postcards From The Edge actor told NBC. ‘We’re fighting as hard as we can to save our city. Gosh, I never thought I’d say that.’
His interview took place as he returned to Brentwood following his initial evacuation, ‘just in case,’ he said, he ‘had to shut off the gas and all those little things you don’t think of, and just thought maybe I could be there and put a hose on the roof if the embers start coming over at least, something like that, or help out the neighbors.’
Quaid shared that on Tuesday, he ‘just woke up to this big plume of smoke and then, that was a real exciting day as far as here and the Palisades went up, and Wednesday it just came within 150 yards of the house, and these guys with their planes came down and put that retardant there.’
He added: ‘And those helicopter pilots are, they’re incredible, what they do. And I can’t say enough about the firefighters and the first responders in this town.’
Quaid, who lives with his wife Laura Savoie, 34, reflected: ‘We’ve had it lucky. I have so many friends who’ve lost. My agent, he lost both of his houses.’
He noted that ‘another good friend over in the Palisades, he just moved into a house and he was renting the other one and he lost both of ‘em. We’re fighting as hard as we can to save our city. Gosh, I never thought I’d say that.’
The historic crisis had been ‘a really big lesson’ for Quaid, illustrating to him that ‘our experience of reality can change in a moment.’
His latest interview comes after he joined the ranks of outraged celebrities who have slated Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as deadly wildfires continue to ravage the city, after she slashed the fire department’s budget last year.
Bass also came under fire for traveling to Ghana while the city became engulfed in flames, despite having had ample warning about ‘critical’ weather conditions in the days before.
She flew out to attend the West African country’s presidential inauguration on Tuesday, after meteorologists warned that a ‘recipe for fire’ was on track to strike LA.
Scores of A-listers have taken to their social media to shame the LA mayor’s response to the infernos that have been spreading since Tuesday.
Speaking to Fox News in an interview on Wednesday, he said: ‘It’s an inherent problem in California.’
‘[There is] no water in the Palisades… the infrastructure has been a big problem around here – and where we should spend the money… I do have a difference with that.
‘The mayor coming back, I’m sure she got on the first plane coming back but having nothing to say once she got here…you got to hit the ground running around here.’
Sarah Michelle Gellar took to Instagram to express her outrage, writing: ‘City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping’.
Meanwhile, other furious celebrities have critiques the mayor’s moves, with actress Sara Foster writing on X:
‘We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits. RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.’
Former Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy also expressed his dissatisfaction on social media.
‘5th largest economy on the planet. Firefighters didn’t have enough water pressure to do their job?! Are you joking me?! The taxes we pay for 3rd world infrastructure is unbelievable?! Come on.
Actor James Woods also blasted the mayor, blaming her and California Governor Gavin Newsom for the fire.
‘This fire is not from ‘climate change,’ you ignorant asshole. It’s because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs’, he wrote.
Earlier this week, Woods believed his own home had been destroyed by the fires, though it later emerged the house had been spared.
Bass eventually returned home Wednesday to survey the damage alongside fellow Democrat and California Governor Gavin Newsom
‘To the thousands of families impacted by this horrific fire — the City of Los Angeles is providing resources and shelter as this emergency continues. To the hundreds of brave firefighters and first responders who have been responding all day to this blaze — we thank you. The City is working aggressively to confront this emergency,’ she said in a statement.