Pacific Palisades resident Steve Guttenberg says the blaze that is burning through his community is “the most unbelievable I’ve ever seen.”
The actor, who appeared on CNN on Tuesday night, was one of 30,000 residents under evacuation orders after the fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. that morning. On CNN, he described the daytime scene, saying that due to the smoke, he said, “The sky was dark, like it was nighttime.” (See photos.)
Guttenberg spoke about helping people who were trying to evacuate the area, echoing comments he’d made earlier to KTLA. On the Pacific Coast Highway, he got out of his car to help people and saw a heartbreaking scene.
There were “mothers who were having panic attacks [and] little kids crying. … The cars were bumper-to-bumper traffic for over two miles and it was dangerous, the police were coming. … I spent all day moving these cars up on the hill, trying to [move them] so the fire trucks could get through,” he said.
He was driven to his car around 6 p.m.
“There were trees coming down on Sunset Boulevard,” he noted, adding that he saw devastation all around him, with Gelson’s grocery store, the Palisades Playhouse theater and the Palisades Woman’s Club all on fire. “All of Temescal Canyon is on fire, both sides. All the houses; the school is on fire.”
He also spoke about having empathy and needing to help people at this time.
“This is a really important time for us to remember … we are one big community,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, Guttenberg told KTLA how he was trying to help that he was assisting with clearing streets to help residents evacuate and to allow firefighters easier access to reach the blaze.
“What’s happening is people take their keys with them as if they’re in a parking lot,” he said. “This is not a parking lot. We really need people to move their cars. If you leave your car behind, leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there.”
Guttenberg said he was walking up Palisades Drive moving cars.
“There are families up there. There are pets up there,” he said. “There are people who really need help.”
Among the residents who call the area home are Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper, Eugene Levy, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler, Michael Keaton, Miles Teller, Michael Mann, Ann Sarnoff, Carol Lombardini, Alan Bergman, Kathleen Kennedy and James Woods.
As of Tuesday night, the fire had grown to 2,900 acres with zero percent containment. Another fire also broke out in Altadena, some 45 miles from Palisades. Several structures have burned down, including Palisades High School, and numerous events have been canceled due to the fire.
Jackie Strause and Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.
