The affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles is usually full of foreigners trying to catch a glimpse of the houses of fame.
However, now its streets are full of firefighters battling a 3,000-hectare fire that is raging in the area.
Across the city, more than 30,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes as the wind sparked three fires. A state of emergency has been declared, with roads closed as people flee.
Among them, a number of famous faces were forced to leave their otherwise idyllic homes in California, including Star Wars star Mark Hamill and Schitt’s Creek actor Eugene Levy.
James Woods, who has starred in films including Nixon and Casino, described the evacuation of his home on social media and said he was unsure if it was still standing.
“It feels like losing a loved one,” he wrote.
Pacific Palisades is known for being exclusive, with a house going for an average of $4.5m (£3.6m) in November 2024, according to Realtor.com.
LA’s northern neighborhood is bordered to the south by three miles (4.8 km) of beaches on the Pacific Ocean, located between Malibu and Santa Monica.
It is a hub of trendy shops, cafes and a farmer’s market.
But the Palisades fire — which grew from 10 acres to more than 2,900 in a matter of hours — destroyed the area’s idyllic nature.
Mark Hamill, of Star Wars fame, called the blaze “the worst fire since ’93” — which burned 18,000 acres and destroyed 323 homes in nearby Malibu — in an Instagram post.
He said he evacuated his Malibu home “so he came at the last minute [were] small fires on both sides of the road”.
Levy, who became famous for his role in the American Pie film series, told local media that he was forced to evacuate his home.
“The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn’t see any flames, but the smoke was very dark,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
Reality stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag lost their family home in a fire, his sister wrote on Instagram.
“My heart is broken for my brother, Heidi and the children,” she said. “Even the Palisades fire station burned down.”
Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife Keleigh also live in the area.
Posting on Instagram, Ms Teller shared a picture of the fire and a broken heart emoji. She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals while they evacuate their homes.
Meanwhile, actor Steve Guttenberg, of Police Academy fame, stayed behind to help firefighters by moving cars to make way for the oncoming fire trucks.
He urged residents to leave the keys to their abandoned cars so they could be moved out of the way of firefighters.
“We really need people to move their cars,” he told news outlet KTLA: “This is not a parking lot.”
Not only well-known residents were affected by the fire – significant buildings in the area were also threatened.
Palisades Charter High School — which has served as a movie set and counts several notable people as former students — was damaged in the fire, according to local media.
The fire-ravaged school has been used in films, including the 1976 horror classic Carrie and Project X, The Hollywood Reporter writes.
Alumni include director JJ Abrams, musician Will.i.am, and actors Forest Whitaker and Katey Sagal.
The Getty Villa is an art museum in the Palisades that has a large collection of art and artifacts, including works by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.
The museum confirmed on Tuesday that it was closed to the public and that some trees and vegetation on site had burned – but said “no structures are on fire and staff and the collection remain safe”.
Star events scheduled to take place in the area have also been cancelled.
Premieres of Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been canceled, as has the live nominations event for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
