Los Angeles: A fast-moving wildfire Monday destroyed at least five multi-million-dollar homes in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles and forced celebrities to flee in the middle of the night.
Among neighborhoods under evacuation orders was the posh area of Brentwood, a section on the west side of the city that became world-famous in 1994 when former football star O.J Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife and a waiter there.
Today Brentwood is home to basketball superstar LeBron James, A-list Hollywood actors, wealthy producers and media company executives
James, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, said he and his family had to drive around in the early morning hours looking for a place to stay after fleeing the home he shares with his wife and three children. “Had to emergency evacuate my house and I’ve been driving around with my family trying to get rooms,” James wrote on Twitter around 4 a.m.
He later added that he found a place to take them in “Crazy night man!,” he said. Mr James bought a $23 million, eight-bedroom home in Brentwood in late 2017, according to media reports. On the northern edge of Brentwood, a cluster of several multimillion-dollar homes were reduced to smoldering debris along a street festooned with Halloween decorations
A fake bloody arm, part of the holiday decorations, had turned into melted plastic at one dwelling, and a giant skull replica remained in the front of another. Heavy smoke and ash filled the air as water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers buzzed overhead.