Dick Van Dyke was forced to crawl to his car during the terrifying Malibu wildfire evacuation after ‘exhausting himself’ trying to fight the flames.
The screen legend, who will turn 99 on Friday December 13, fled his home with wife Arlene Silver, 53, and their animals this week. They have since returned and located their cat Bobo, who escaped during the blaze.
Speaking with a local news outlet in an interview aired on the Today show Thursday, Van Dyke said the fire ‘was coming from the hill, you could see it.
‘And oh my God, and we got out of here.’
He revealed he was forced to crawl to his car after exhausting himself trying to use a fire hose, saying: ‘I had exhausted myself, I couldn’t get up.
‘Three neighbors came and carried me out and came back and put out a little fire in the guest house and saved me.’
Dick Van Dyke was forced to crawl to his car during the terrifying Malibu wildfire evacuation after ‘exhausting himself’ trying to fight the flames
The screen legend, who will turn 99 on Friday December 13, fled his home with wife Arlene Silver, 53, and their animals this week. They have since returned and located their cat Bobo, who escaped during the blaze (pictured)
Van Dyke left fans devastated when he revealed Bobo had gone missing during their evacuation.
Van Dyke took to Facebook to announce Bobo had been found on Wednesday and shared a photo of the disgruntled feline as he reunited with his family.
He wrote: ‘We found Bobo as soon as we arrived back home this morning. There was so much interest in his disappearance that Animal Control was called in to assist.
‘But, thankfully he was easy to find and not harmed.’
Arlene added to a fan that Bobo’s wails had alerted them to his presence, writing: ‘He was not happy!!! I heard him before I saw him within minutes of us arriving back home. So grateful!!! Arlene.’
The news will come as a welcome early birthday present for Van Dyke, who will turn 99 on Friday, December 13.
The coastal community is home to numerous celebrities looking to escape the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles in favor of the sun and surf, but the lack of fire-resistant development puts them at greater risk of wildfires.
The Mary Poppins star wasn’t the only actor in harm’s way of the blaze, now named the Franklin Fire, and other stars including Cher, 78, have been forced to flee.
Speaking with a local news outlet in an interview aired on the Today show Thursday, Van Dyke said the fire ‘was coming from the hill, you could see it. ‘And oh my God, and we got out of here’
The star is seen being evacuated from his home with wife Arlene
Van Dyke took to Facebook to announce Bobo had been found on Wednesday and shared a photo of the disgruntled feline as he reunited with his family
The actor first revealed that cat Bobo had escaped while they were evacuating. ‘We’re praying he’ll be ok…’ he wrote while posting a photo of the cat
Other stars live in the mandatory evacuation zones but haven’t yet clarified if they have left, including Barbra Streisand and Jonah Hill.
Van Dyke shared a photo of his cat Bobo and first revealed his disappearance on Tuesday, writing: ‘Arlene and I have safely evacuated with our animals except for Bobo escaped as we were leaving.
‘We’re praying he’ll be ok and that our community in Serra Retreat will survive these terrible fires.’
The fires have exploded due to heavy Santa Ana winds in Southern California.
Photos taken Tuesday of the Dick Van Dyke Show star’s home showed it appeared to have been unharmed by the blaze, even as neighboring properties were devoured by it.
Cher, who also lives in the area, evacuated in the face of the fast-moving fire.
Photos taken Tuesday of Van Dyke’s Malibu property show that it appeared to have survived the blaze, even as neighboring properties were destroyed
Van Dyke also expressed hope that his ‘community in Serra Retreat will survive these terrible fires’; pictured with Carol Burnett in June in Hollywood
Fire personnel spray water as the Franklin Fire Tuesday morning, as other parts of the blaze rapidly grew by the minute
Cher, who also lives in the area, evacuated in the face of the fast-moving fire. Her publicist Liz Rosenberg told the New York Times that Cher had moved to a hotel with her pets on Monday night
Her publicist Liz Rosenberg told the New York Times that Cher had moved to a hotel with her pets on Monday night.
A representative for Streisand wasn’t able to provide details on her whereabouts and said he was still waiting to here where she was.
Other stars who live in the area but haven’t clarified if they have evacuated including Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
They attended the premiere of the Lion King computer-animated prequel Mufasa on Monday with daughter Blue Ivy and Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles.
The surprising red-carpet appearances came just a day after Jay-Z was accused in a lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girl in the company of disgraced rap mogul Diddy at a party after the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.
Jay-Z vehemently denied the accusation in a bizarre statement he shared after the news broke.
Jonah Hill also owns a home in the exclusive Malibu Colony, which is in the area of mandatory evacuation, as do Julia Roberts, who has a home in Malibu’s Point Dume neighborhood.
Lady Gaga has a Zuma Beach mansion that is located in the mandatory evacuation area.
Among the stars living in Malibu are Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who attended the premiere of the Lion King computer-animated prequel Mufasa on Monday with daughter Blue Ivy and Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles
Jonah Hill also owns a home in the exclusive Malibu Colony, which is in the area of mandatory evacuation
Julia Roberts, who has a home in Malibu’s Point Dume neighborhood, was also apparently in the evacuation zone; pictured in 2022 in LA
Lady Gaga has a Zuma Beach mansion that is located in the mandatory evacuation area; pictured November 4 in Philadelphia, Penn.
Evacuations are underway in celebrity-filled Malibu following the rapid spread of a wildfire that broke out overnight
A motorist passes as a mountainside burns as the Franklin Fire grows in Malibu, still yet to be contained in the slightest after more than half-a-day
Other big names, including Nicolas Cage and Karlie Kloss also call the beachside area home, and other stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Aniston have lived in the popular area over the years.
The wildfire didn’t just put individuals at risk, but also threatened key cultural centers int he area, including the Getty Villa.
The museum, a component of the Getty Museum, is designed in the image of an ancient Roman villa and features antiquities from Greece and Rome.
The fast-moving blaze first started at around 11 p.m. PST on Monday night, initially with a footprint of around 100 acres. By 7 a.m., it had expanded to 2,200 acres. As of 12 p.m., it was more than 2,600.
As of Tuesday morning, zero percent of the Franklin Fire had been contained, as it continued to tear through the eastern part of Malibu, which is under a mandatory evacuation order.
As of Tuesday morning, the evacuation order has gone out to more than 6,000 residents.
Residents of neighborhoods like Sweetwater Canyon and Serra Retreat were among those forced to flee their luxury abodes. Footage from the fire-ravaged area filmed early Tuesday morning showed firefighters battling the flames.
‘Flames are everywhere. People are running away in vehicles from Malibu both directions on the coastal highway,’ one local told the Los Angeles Times, after the fire had spread across more than 1,800 acres by dawn.
‘Malibu Pier and other structures are impacted. Structures are impacted on Malibu Knolls Rd and Sweetwater Cyn,’ the city added in an emergency update around that time, as students and staff at Pepperdine University were ordered to take shelter.
‘The fire is burning so hot that it is modifying the local winds… [and] bending them towards and into the fire,’ the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned later in the morning, as the fire burned through an area larger than five football fields.
Chilling footage shared on X, meanwhile, from frightened Pepperdine students showed flickering flames of the fire mere yards from the campus library, as concerned students, who started their first day of finals on Monday, rushed down stairs to escape.
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