Hollywood actress calls LA fires a ‘disaster’, says elected officials didn’t do enough
Hollywood actress Elizabeth Chambers claims that the government has not done enough during fires in LA.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Chambers, 42, was asked if he believed city officials did everything they could to contain the fires in Los Angeles.
“I think it was a disaster,” she remarked. “I don’t think anybody was ready. I think it’s on a scale that nobody expected.”
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Elizabeth Chambers told Fox News Digital what she grabbed when she and her children had to evacuate during the fires in Los Angeles. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Chambers shared her feelings about the billionaire real estate mogul and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso.
“And then Caruso saved Palisades Village. … You can get political, or you can’t. But, at the end of the day, he had as much time as anybody to prepare. … I mean, it’s untouched. It’s eerily untouched.”
WATCH: ELIZABETH CHAMBERS CALLS FIRES A ‘DISASTER’, SAYS NOT ENOUGH IS BEING DONE
“The music is still playing in Palisades Village, like it’s Disneyland and everything around it is destruction. So do I think the steps were taken appropriately and quickly enough? Absolutely not.”
Caruso, who ran unsuccessfully against Karen Bass for mayor in 2022, previously said the non-existent water supply as the Palisades fire reduced multimillion-dollar properties to ashes represented “absolute mismanagement by the city.”
Rick Caruso decried the lack of water in the Palisades. (Getty Images)
“There is no water in the Palisades. Water is not coming out of the fire hydrants. This is absolute mismanagement by the city. It’s not the fire department’s fault, it’s the city’s fault,” Caruso said Fox11 Los Angeles when the fires were raging.
Deadly fires broke out in the Los Angeles area on January 7, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee for safety as their homes and businesses were destroyed. Officials said Thursday that more than 30 people were still missing, while two additional deaths brought the death toll to 27.
“So do I think the steps were taken appropriately and quickly enough? Absolutely not.”
Firefighters watch as a helicopter drops water on the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon in Los Angeles on January 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Chambers detailed the moment she had to evacuate as she immediately gathered her personal belongings and those of her children.
“I took our passports. I took our birth certificates. I just took pictures like that… around the house… old family photos,” she explained to Fox News Digital. “I just packed for a few nights.”
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Chambers said that when she evacuated, she “took our passports. I took our birth certificates. I just took pictures like that … around the house … old family photos.” (Morgan Lieberman/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
The television personality has two children with her ex-husband, Armie Hammer, and shared how she explained the tragic fires in California to her young children, daughter Harper, 10, and son Ford, 7.
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“I think, with anything in parenting, you have to be the captain of the plane. … If the captain of the plane panics, the passengers panic. And that’s how I approach parenting in general,” she told Fox News Digital.
Chambers has two children with ex-husband Armie Hammer, daughter Harper (10) and son Ford (7). (Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan)
“But if the pilot of the plane doesn’t panic and says everything is fine, and you know you’re going to crash, you also don’t trust the pilot. So, you know, that’s transparency. That’s really honest conversations and reassurance.
“You can tell a lot of people are losing their homes right now. We have everything that’s important. And no matter what, we’re a family. And we’re healthy, and we’re together. And we’ll always have a place to live, and that’s what you can do say,” she remarked.
WATCH: ELIZABETH CHAMBERS RAISES MONEY FOR LA FIRES WITH CHARITY CUPCAKES
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Chambers is helping to raise money for victims of the California wildfires through her charity Cupcake for a Cause.
The owner of Bird Bakery is donating 100% of the proceeds from his Strawberry Lemonade Cake to the Los Angeles Fire Department through February 1st.
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“Over the past nearly 13 years in business, we’ve consistently created CUPCAKE FOR A CAUSE™️ to help a multitude of tragedies and events in our community and beyond, and this is no exception,” Chambers’ company announced on Instagram earlier this week.
“My children and I have been evacuated for the past 7 days and we are still praying for the safety of our home, but we are lucky. This has truly been the most devastating unimaginable for many, and this is our opportunity to help.”
“It’s a vanilla cake with folded sliced strawberries and lemon buttercream,” Chambers told Fox News Digital. “And we’ve already sold so many in the last few days, and that money goes directly to the LA Fire Department Foundation.”
She noted that the flavor is significant because 90% of all strawberries grown in the United States come from California, and “we turn lemons into lemonade.”
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Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
