LeBron James evacuates home threatened by California fire
The NBA star LeBron James was among evacuees of a fire that by Monday morning engulfed in flames the hills near the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Lakers star, 34, tweeted just before 4am that he was trying to find rooms for his family after having to “emergency evacuate” his house, calling the fires “no joke”.
He later tweeted that he found accommodation, said he was praying for those affected and advised people to get to safety.
“I [pray] for all the families in the area that could be affected by these [fires] now!” James wrote. “Pretty please get to safety ASAP.
“My best wishes as well to the first responders right now doing what they do best!”
The Los Angeles fire department warned early on Monday that a fire had broken on a hillside near the Getty
Museum and was moving in a westward direction. A mandatory evacuation order encompassed Mandeville Canyon and Mountain Gate and parts of Brentwood. Later, the evacuation warning area was expanded west to include parts of Topanga state park and Pacific Palisades.
By mid-morning, the fire was burning north and west of the museum, but there was no damage to the collection. Officials said the facility was built with thick walls and doors to compartmentalize any flames.
Elsewhere in southern California, the Tick fire near Santa Clarita, which had led to mandatory evacuations for roughly 50,000 people last week and burned thousands of acres, was 70% contained as of Sunday night. Up north, crews were grappling with a wildfire in Sonoma county that officials said covered 85 square miles and forced 185,000 people to evacuate over the weekend.
Fire conditions statewide made California “a tinderbox”, said Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for the California department of forestry and fire protection. Of the state’s 58 counties, 43 were under red flag warnings for high fire danger Sunday. High winds that fueled the wildfires in northern California over the weekend had slowed down slightly on Monday but were expected to pick up again later in the week.
The Getty fire erupted in the same region as a major fire one week earlier, which hit the Pacific Palisades and threatened multimillion-dollar oceanview homes near the beach.
Last year’s fires in the Malibu area destroyed mansions and homes of a number of prominent celebrities, including Miley Cyrus, Neil Young and Gerard Butler. The Getty fire had also forced the evacuation of Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the former California governor said on Twitter.
The recent fires and power shutdowns across the state have exposed major disparities in the impacts of these disasters, with wealthier residents able to rebuild while low-income survivors can be displaced and left with few options for recovery.
The cause of the Getty fire was not yet known. Officials said it appeared some homes were destroyed, but the extent of the damage was unclear as the fire continued to spread.