Meryl Streep took matters into her own hands — literally — as wildfires rampaged across Los Angeles County earlier this month.
According to nephew Abe Streep, the Oscar-winning actor sprang into action after a fallen tree blocked her driveway as she tried to evacuate her home the day after wind-stoked fires broke out across the region. In his harrowing account of the historic fires in Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Hollywood that was published Tuesday in New York Magazine, Streep wrote that his aunt, 75, borrowed a neighbor’s wire cutters and “cut a car-size hole in the fence” they shared.
The “Devil Wears Prada” star, “determined to make it out,” then drove through her neighbor’s yard to escape, her nephew recalled.
Meryl Streep was one of a handful of area residents whose experiences with the fires — which have claimed 29 lives and destroyed more than 15,000 structures — were told in the New York story. The younger Streep also spoke to a longtime West Altadena resident, a Palisades native and schoolteacher, actor Haley Joel Osment and his aunt’s “Only Murders in the Building” co-star Martin Short, among others.
Short, who knew “right away” in the early years of his career that he would live in Pacific Palisades and bought there in 1984, told Abe Streep he “will definitely stay in my home,” despite one of his sons losing a house. “The Sixth Sense” and “Blink Twice” star Osment said he and his parents lost their homes in the Eaton fire.
In one of the most destructive firestorms to hit Los Angeles County in recent memory, at least 130,000 Angelenos fled for safety — with celebrities among those reeling from the devastation.
As of Tuesday morning, the Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires in L.A. County were 95%, 99% and 98% contained, respectively, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Containment of the Border 2 fire in San Diego County was listed at 74%. No homes burned in Hollywood’s Sunset fire, which was fully contained on Jan. 9.
The rainstorm in recent days brought much-needed moisture to Southern California and welcome relief to fire-weary Angelenos. Ryan Kittell, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, said Tuesday that while the amount of rainfall wasn’t enough to prevent fire season from extending into February, “This was a largely beneficial rain.
“I think we dodged a bullet,” he said. “It helped with the firefights and definitely gives us a break from fire weather.”
Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.