Dennis Quaid shared that he has “so many friends” who have lost their homes in the wildfires continuing to plow through Los Angeles neighborhoods.
The Substance actor was stopped by NBC4 Los Angeles on Friday as he was evacuating his Brentwood home, and opened up about the impact of the devastation on those close to him.
Quaid first recalled waking up to a “plume of smoke” on Tuesday, adding that the blaze “came within 150 yards of the house and these guys with their planes came down and put that retardant down there. And those helicopter pilots, they’re incredible, what they do. And I can’t say enough about the firefighters and the first responders in this town. We got some good ones, good people here.”
He added that he, his wife, Laura Savoie, and children have “had it lucky” over the past few days.
“I’ve have so many friends who have lost (homes),” Quaid explained, with a shaky voice. My agent, he lost both of his houses, and another good friend over at Palisades had just moved into a house and was renting the other one. He lost both of them.”
“What do you do, just to rebuild?” he pondered. “You start thinking about how long it takes to put a house together and then you can’t really hold it in your mind.”
The Parent Trap star was later asked what he thinks it will look like when Hollywood comes together to respond and rebuild after the fires are contained.
“All the businesses, the dry cleaners, the grocery stores, the gardeners that work in this area, all the construction workers, you know, your convenience store, your gas station… it’s all of us, we’re all Hollywood,” Quaid responded. “Everybody wants to come here. It’s a great community when we come together and I know we can do it.”
He added, “We’re fighting as hard as we can to save our city. Gosh, I never thought I’d say that. But that’s what’s going on.”
Thousands of homes, businesses and buildings have been destroyed in the wildfires that initially broke out Tuesday in Pacific Palisades before spreading to parts of Malibu and Santa Monica overnight. Since then, first responders have been working tirelessly to contain the Palisades Fire, in addition to other active wildfires erupting across Los Angeles County, including the Eaton, Hurst and Kenneth fires. The death toll has also risen to 11 people, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.
Among the thousands who have lost their homes to the flames are numerous celebrities, many who have taken to social media to share the devastation left behind in their communities and neighborhoods.
As of Saturday evening, the Kenneth Fire was 90 percent contained; the Palisades Fire near the coastline was 11 percent contained; and the Eaton Fire was 15 percent contained. The Hurst Fire, south of Santa Clarita, was 76 percent contained.
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