Stars’ homes in ashes as California fires rage on
HOLLYWOOD stars have returned to burnt-out homes after fleeing the fires raging through California.
Veteran rocker Neil Young’s Malibu property has been reduced to ruins – the second time he has lost a home to fire.
Young, 73, took a swipe at Donald Trump for his insensitive reaction to the blaze which has so far claimed 31 lives, referring to him as a ‘so-called president’. He also spoke of a ‘time of reckoning’ for ‘this unfit leader’.
Mr Trump had blamed the fires on ‘poor forest management’ in California before even paying tribute to the dead.
Young said: ‘We are vulnerable because of climate change – the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it.’
In a video posted on his Instagram page, Scottish actor Gerard Butler, 48, said, ‘Welcome to my home in Malibu – half gone’, as he walked through the ashes of his house.
Singers Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke and actress Shannen Doherty were other stars who lost their homes. Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom shared a photo near his home, with flames leaping from trees.
‘This is my street as of two hours ago,’ he said. ‘Praying for the safety of all my Malibu family, grateful to our brave firefighters. Please stay safe.’
As well as the 31 fatalities, at least 228 people are missing. The fire is now the deadliest in the state since 1933 and things could get worse with gusts known as ‘devil winds’ whipping through the state.
Three firefighters have been injured near the town of Paradise, which has been destroyed by the blaze.
LA County fire department chief Daryl Osby warned residents to stay away, saying: ‘Your house can be rebuilt, but you can’t bring your life back.’ California governor Jerry Brown has called for a ‘major disaster’ status to be declared so emergency resources can be released to the area.
Sheriff Kory Honea, in Paradise, said: ‘There is so much debris in some of these areas that it’s very difficult to determine whether or not there might be human remains there. It’s possible the temperatures were high enough to completely consume the body.’
The source of the fires is unclear, but a power company said it experienced an outage at a substation in the San Fernando Valley about two minutes before one of the blazes began.