Palisades Fire: Sarah Michelle Gellar leads stars in attack on LA mayor as gridlock prevents evacuation
Sarah Michelle Gellar scolded Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday as the Palisades Fire burns Los Angeles.
“City of LA you want everyone to evacuate but you have a complete gridlock and no traffic police on the roads helping,” Gellar wrote on Instagram stories tagged on the official social media accounts for the city of Los Angeles and Bass.
The Palisades Fire, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds, started in the Santa Monica Mountains late Tuesday morning and quickly consumed 200 acres within an hour, growing to nearly 3,000 acres by sunset, FOX Weather reported.
PALISADES FIRE: RICKI LAKE MOURNS LOSS OF ‘DREAM HOME’ AS THEY ESCAPE RITZY NEIGHBORHOOD
Sarah Michelle Gellar was one of many to criticize LA Mayor Karen Bass as the fires roared through Los Angeles neighborhoods. (Getty Images)
Former “Dancing with the Stars” professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy took to social media on Wednesday, writing: “5th largest economy on the planet. Firemen didn’t have enough water pressure to do their jobs?! Are you kidding me?! The taxes we pay for third world infrastructure are unbelievable? Come on.”
Sarah Foster wrote on XWe pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation has grown, the bushes have not been cleared. Our governor emptied our reservoirs because the tribal leaders wanted to save the fish. The mayor cut our fire department budget. But thank goodness drug addicts get their drug paraphernalia. @mayorOfLA @GavinNewsom RESIGN. Your far-left politics have destroyed our country. And our party.”
Celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels recalled how she lost her home in Woolsey Fire 2018 while on X she criticized the leadership of California.
“5th largest economy on the planet. Firemen didn’t have enough water to do their jobs?! Are you kidding me?! The taxes we pay for 3rd world infrastructure are unbelievable?!”
“The mayor is apparently in Ghana,” she wrote. “The fire department’s budget has apparently been cut by 17 million. And someone made a decision not to fill some of the tanks – now some fire hydrants are dry. The leadership in California is beyond careless. This is completely unacceptable.”
In another post, Michaels continued, “California Governor @GavinNews is issuing a press release admitting they knew about the insane fire danger last Sunday because he proposed fire trucks. Yet he just called in the National Guard a few hours ago. Pacific Palisades ran out of water at 3 a.m. I’m so upset for my firefighter family. This is not a partisan issue, it’s pure incompetence and misplacement of priorities.”
The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Sarah Michelle Gellar and professional dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy criticized the leadership’s response to the LA fires. (Instagram)
James Woods, who lost his home Tuesday in the Palisades fire, wrote on X that the fire was not caused by “climate change,” but by “liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass.”
ACTOR STEVE GUTTENBERG HELPS PALISADES FIRST RESPOND TO FIRE AS FLAMES RAGE, ‘IT’S A GHOST TOWN’
“One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management, and the other can’t fill water tanks,” he added. Woods posted throughout the day as he prepared to evacuate his home and later gave fans the sad news that he had lost his house in Pacific Palisades.
Steve Guttenberg sprang into action to help firefighters and move cars stuck on Sunset Boulevard by residents fleeing the fire, he told Fox News Digital exclusively. “It’s kind of like Zombieland, you know, there’s all these abandoned cars all over the street.”
Los Angeles Fire Department officials confirmed the Palisades fire started just after 11 a.m. near the southeast side of Palisades Drive. Evacuation orders were issued as the fire grew to approximately 200 acres.
Vehicles were abandoned on the road after passengers got stuck in traffic during the evacuation. (Getty Images)
Guttenberg — known for his roles in “Police Academy” and “Three Men and a Baby” — urged people who left their vehicles behind while evacuating to leave their keys behind so crews could get to the fire.
LIKE WHAT YOU READ? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
“What people are doing is they’re leaving their cars, and it’s a crisis, and they’re not leaving their keys in their cars,” Guttenberg told Fox News Digital. “What happens is the fire trucks can’t get up the street because they have all these abandoned cars with no way to move them. So what I was doing was helping move the cars and putting them up the hill and clearing the way for the firefighters.”
“I just wanted to see what I could do to help some of my neighbors, but it’s a ghost town.”
Guttenberg noted that the fire “is the biggest fire we’ve ever seen in the Palisades. It’s huge.”
“We’ve had small fires, but this one is definitely the biggest and it’s just burning out of control in certain areas,” he said. “I managed to get up here, kind of a pocket where there’s no fire. So everybody’s safe, and I just wanted to see what I could do to help some of my neighbors, but it’s a ghost town. They’re all gone. And I think that’s what should be in a great fire like this.”
WATCH: Steve Guttenberg recalls helping fire crews during the Palisades fire.
The cars are shown after the Pacific Palisades Hellfall on January 7, 2025. (KTTV)
Reality TV star Spencer Pratt and wife Heidi Montag lost their home in palisade firethey confirmed on Tuesday on their Snapchat accounts. In a series of videos, “The Hills” star. he showed how the fire quickly moved over the hill towards their property.
“Well, this doesn’t look good,” Pratt said as he filmed the fire on the mountain behind their home. “I saw the flames coming for the first time. Aw, man. All right, I’m going to pack, I think.”
WATCH: Actor James Woods says it’s ‘possible’ his house is still standing
He later posted a video from his car in which he said he watched their home burn on their security cameras. Pratt shared a photo of his children’s room, saying it was burned in the shape of a heart.
Air tanker drops on Palisades Fire. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Spencer Pratt shared pictures from his home, captured by security cameras. (Spencer Pratt Snapchat)
Chris Pratt offered prayers to evacuees and those who could not leave the fire scene. (Rodin Eckenroth/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
Chris Pratt posted on X and asked people to join him in praying for the “brave firefighters who sacrifice so much to save our homes and our city.”
“Jesus protect the lives of those fighting the flames and the lives of those who could not evacuate,” he wrote.
Former Food Network personality Sandra Lee shared a carousel of pictures from around Malibu on Tuesday before revealing that she had lost her home on Wednesday morning.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE FOR THE FUN NEWSLETTER
APPLICATION USERS CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ANNOUNCEMENT
“Good morning, thank you for all the good wishes. I’m in the hotel. I don’t have a home anymore, my house is gone. It’s literally gone,” she said. “I cried all night, thank God that everyone is safe.
“I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to share this, I don’t know what to do … all my stuff, all the last five years of my life. So the only thing I can do is go to work, and I’m going to go to work today as I go to work and I will restore it, I don’t know how.”
