LA fires push Zachary Levi to take aim at California leaders

On January 10, 2025By Littum

Southern California’s coastline continued to burn Thursday as powerful fires ravaged some of the nation’s most recognizable neighborhoods.

As firefighters worked overnight to contain the fast-moving flames, many celebrities took to social media to express gratitude to first responders, while a few took the moment to share displeasure with the state’s leadership and handling of the crisis.

“Shazam!” star Zachary Levi appeared on Fox News Wednesday to express frustration with California politicians for their handling of this fire and others in the past.

“This is just incredibly bad management, incredibly bad management, I would go as far as to say it’s criminally negligent,” said Levi, who spoke to Fox from Austin, Texas.

From the Hollywood Hills to Malibu, flames engulfed the lower half of the state, driven by strong winds that calmed only slightly Wednesday night.

At least five fires were active in Los Angeles County Thursday, Cal Fire reported, though the most destructive remain the Pacific Palisades and Eaton flames with 0% containment. The regions consumed by these fires happen to be home to many A-listers who live and work in the nation’s entertainment capital.

James Woods, Zachary Levi, Sara Foster blow CA lead mid-fire

Actor James Woods went to X on Wednesday night to express dissatisfaction at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and posted a headline with a screenshot from the New York Post claiming Bass cut fire department funding before the fire.

“The most important task ahead is not to be bitter, but…” he wrote. IN a later post he called both Bass and Gavin Newsom “liberal idiots.” Newsom is the governor of California.

“One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs,” he wrote of the pair.

Actress and producer Sara Foster echoed this sentiment his own post, writes Wednesday: “We pay the highest taxes in California. Our hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, the brush not cleared.”

Foster called for both Bass and Newsom to resign, writing “Your far left politics have destroyed our state. And our party too.”

Budget records for the city show the fire department’s allocation dropped from about $837 million 2023-24 to $819.5 million i 2024-25. However, a pie chart of total expenditures indicates that fire department real estate in the total budget remained about 15% year over year.

USA TODAY has reached out to Bass’ office for comment.

Tina Knowles, mother of music icon Beyoncé, defended Bass on Instagram Thursday, reposting a Reel from creator @reeciecolbert who argued that conservative media’s blaming of Bass was racial and that the scale of the fire was a direct result of climate change. “This mayor has always worked diligently to improve Los Angeles and all communities. Another opportunity to attack a black woman in power,” Knowles wrote along with the post. “Don’t believe the hype!”

Regarding the claim of water reservoirs, the tanks in Pacific Palisades were indeed without water midway through the fire, but the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power denied claims that they were not at capacity before the fire started.

At a press conference on Wednesday Department officials said the tanks in the area were fully filled at about 1 million gallons in each of the three at the start of the fire, but those supplies ran out Wednesday morning.

“We had a huge demand on our system… we pushed the system to the extreme,” said Janisse Quiñonesexecutive director of the LA Department of Water and Power. “If there’s one message to take away from me today, it’s ‘I need our customers to really save water’.”

California has suffered from years of drought, with officials often urging residents to conserve water by replacing lawns with dew-friendly plants and limiting shower time.

“He clearly knows that the biggest problem we’re suffering in California is these fires and by the way the mudslides that follow,” Levi said, taking aim at Newsom and accusing the governor of doing “not just nothing, but worse than nothing .”

Also referring to the budget and claiming that there are ways to conserve water that are not being used, Levi appeared to argue that Newsom’s negligence may be deliberate. He also blasted management for allowing many California homes to be denied fire insurance.

“They need to be held accountable,” he told host Jesse Watters, “that’s not good leadership.”

Insurance companies are private, which means the government only has so much control over their policies. By the end of 2024, the state insurance commissioner action taken aimed at expanding insurance coverage in wildfire-hit areas after many businesses have folded in the wake of other devastating fires.

Allstate, which had suspended all new policies in the state through 2022, signaled interest in returning to the state after the changes, The New York Times writes.

In 2024, State Farm, the largest insurance company in the state, cut insurance in the Santa Monica Mountains, resulting in 70% of customers in Pacific Palisades, about 1,600 homeowners, losing coverage, The Times reports.

The California FAIR plan, a state-run alternative used by many and abandoned by major insurers, has filled the gap in some particularly fire-prone neighborhoods.