Steve Guttenberg helps evacuate neighbors affected by wildfires

CNN
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Steve Guttenberg doesn’t just play a good guy on screen.

The actor, best known for performances in hit movies like “Police Academy” and “Three Men and a Baby,” sprang into action when wildfires in Los Angeles County threatened the area around his Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

“I haven’t seen anything like this in my entire life, and I don’t think a lot of people have,” he told CNN’s Laura Coates on Tuesday night. “At 9 in the morning it was idyllic Pacific Palisades, and then by 10 o’clock, 10:30, the sky was dark, like it was night.”

Life-threatening fires have raged across LA County, where residents have been met with unpredictable flames, heavy smoke and evacuation orders for thousands.

Earlier, Guttenberg spoke with Los Angeles television station KTLA as he actively worked to try to clear some of the abandoned cars in an area he said was hindering people’s ability to evacuate.

“There are people stuck up there. So we’re trying to clear Palisades Drive and I’m going up there as far as I can move cars,” Guttenberg told KTLA. “There are families up there, there are pets up there. There are people who really need help.”

The star told CNN he had been in another area and while trying to get home, he was met with “bumper to bumper traffic” and chaos, so he got out of his car to try to help.

“There were mothers who were hysterical (having) panic attacks helping them with their bags and they were worried about their families up there because they couldn’t get them out in time,” he told Coates. “There were little kids crying. There were people who couldn’t speak English, driving their friends’ cars or their bosses’ cars and being careful where they drove.”

Ultimately, he said, the fire got so close that people were told to get out of their cars and evacuate on foot. He said he spent all day moving abandoned cars to make room for fire engines to get through.

“This is the most incredible fire I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Guttenberg is just one of many recognizable faces affected by the fires.

“Star Wars” star Mark Hamill is among the thousands of LA County residents forced to evacuate their homes due to wildfires.

“7:00pm – Evacuating Malibu, then last minute (there were) small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH,” Hamill wrote in a Instagram Tuesday night post. ”

He and his wife and their dog went to live with their daughter near Hollywood.

“The most horrific fire since ’93,” Hamill added, before urging others to “stay safe.”

Actor James Woods has shared a video on social media of the view from his home in Pacific Palisades, taken the night before he wrote that it was engulfed in flames.

“I took this last night from our beautiful little home in the Palisades. Now all the fire alarms are going off at once remotely,” Woods wrote. “It tests your soul, losing everything at once, I must say.”

Appearing on CNN Wednesday, Woods became visibly emotional as he shared a heartwarming story about his eight-year-old niece’s desire to help.

“She came out with her little Yeti piggy bank for us to rebuild our house,” he said, breaking down in tears.

Parts of Pacific Palisades High School, a location for movies including the horror classic “Carrie” and the 2003 film “Freaky Friday,” were also engulfed in flames from the Palisades Fire, which has now spread to nearly 3,000 acres and no containment.

Reality star Spencer Pratt, who is married to Heidi Montag, posted one photo of their children’s room is on fire. Both their house and Pratt’s parents’ house burned in the fires, according to his social media account Wednesday.

“I think it’s a really important time for us to remember that we’re not just a street, a block, a town, a city, a state, a country, a world, we’re a big community,” Guttenberg told CNN. “And when a crisis occurs, everyone realizes that cars, jewels, none of this matters. What matters is people.”