Fires rage throughout southern CA; Rob Lowe saves neighbors


A CBS News segment about the Montecito fire from Friday. Fires are now burning throughout Southern California

Montecito, a small but very upscale suburb of Los Angeles, became the scene of a roaring out of control brush fire turned home-destroying blaze on Friday. Many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger have homes there. All of those homes seem to have escaped the inferno, but Taxi and Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd has not been so lucky.

The caretaker for actor Christopher Lloyd’s house “fled for his life” in a firestorm last night, said Lisa Loiacono of Sotheby’s International Realty. Loiacono manages the property for Lloyd, who is filming on location in Vancouver, Canada, and was not in Montecito. Loiacono said the property’s 8 acres were all “torched,” and the house “at least partially burned, if not totally.” Loiacono was unable to enter the area this morning.

The house, Lloyd’s main residence, had been listed for sale in the spring of 2007 at $11.3 million but was recently withdrawn from the market while he made upgrades. He owns a second, smaller, home in Montecito that is still on the market for $3.6 million.

The property believed lost is one of Montecito’s more unusual homes. The 5,500-square-foot main house has one bedroom, and there is a separate guesthouse. The house was built in 1972 from adobe bricks made on site. And the living room and bedroom share an outdoor area with a large patio and stone-lined reflecting pool.

Lloyd personally cared for many of the rare and exotic plants on the grounds. It is also believed that the Mountain Drive home of Eva Loggins, Kenny Loggins’ ex-wife, was destroyed by the fire.

[From Los Angeles Times]


burned homes in Montecito

Rob Lowe, a full time Montecito resident whose home appears to be safe, was fleeing the area with his children. He was stopping by neighbors’ homes to make sure others were getting out, as well, when he found a family trapped behind their gated drive. The gate was powered by electricity and because of the fire, the power was out and they couldn’t get the gate to open. Lowe and some others were able to pry the gate and the family got out. Lowe discussed the situation with Winfrey.

Lowe said among the evacuating neighbors he saw was filmmaker Ivan Reitman, director of “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters,” and a neighbor with whom he and Winfrey are mutual friends.

“The next door neighbor’s house, they were trapped behind their gates and could not get out,” Lowe said.

“The next door neighbors the Simmons? You mean the Simmons?,” Winfrey asked.

“The Simmons could not get out of their gate. Their daughter was lost on the property and so I had another gentleman and I pried the gates open. … We tried to comfort the Simmons, and embers were raining down. They were in our hair, they were in our shirts. The wind was easily 70 miles an hour and it was absolutely Armageddon.”

[From AP]

The area’s median home value, even in the current property slump, is $2 million. Over 5,400 homes have been evacuated and more than 110 homes have been destroyed by the flames.

Note by Celebitchy:

Which Simmons were saved?
When I first heard this story I thought that Lowe might have saved Rev. Run and his family from the MTV reality show “Run’s House,” because their daughters are older and seem more likely to go missing like that, but they live in New Jersey. Russell Simmons’ ex wife, Kimora Lee, and their two daughters, Ming Lee, 8, and Aoki Lee, 6, may be the Simmons referred to in this story. I watched the Oprah show mentioned in this story and it’s not clear who Lowe was referring to. We have contacted Russell Simmons’ rep for clarification and will let you know. No matter which Simmons family Lowe was helping everyone seems to be ok now and that’s what matters.


Update: It was not Russell Simmons or Rev. Run:
According to Russell Simmon’s rep it was not Russell, or his brothers Danny or Rev. Run and his family, who do not own homes in that area. It sounded like it might be a famous Simmons family by the way Oprah phrased it, but these are her neighbors and it is likely that she knows them which is why she mentioned them by name.


Fires are burning throughout southern California
Fires are also raging in communities southeast and northwest of Los Angeles throughout southern California. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. 2,000 acres have been burned southeast of LA in Yorba Linda, Brea, Anaheim and Corona. A separate massive brush fire has erupted in Sylmar northwest of LA, which LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said has destroyed more homes than any other fire in the past decade. Here’s a google map of the Sylmar fire, and a photo map showing the fires throughout southern California. Parts of Interstate 5 have been shut down and Los Angeles has undergone rolling blackouts as some lines were taken out of service due to the fire.

The Montecito fire is still burning, and fire officials say it is 60% contained.

You can keep up with this story on Google News.

[details from LA Times]

Here’s a more recent news report about the fires. There’s a map at around 25 seconds in that shows where the fires are burning. Our thoughts are with the people who have fled and lost homes and thank goodness there are no reported casualties.

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24 Responses to “Fires rage throughout southern CA; Rob Lowe saves neighbors”

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  1. dprofe says:

    Can we get any more rediculous?.Who cares what simmons it is,what’s important here is Rob Lowe help save that family at great peril to himself.I also can’t believe that I’m the first person to comment.I guess priorities being what they are Angelina and Lindsey are much more important.Silly,Silly people

  2. RAN says:

    @dprofe – we care because it’s an interesting story! And the story is the reason why I read the article. I think a better way to stress your point would be to talk about what a great guy Rob Lowe is – rather than take the rest of the world to task for not being up at such a God awful early time in the morning — just to be the one to complain that the rest of us haven’t recognized the importance of the rescue 😯

  3. geronimo says:

    😀 RAN. How dare we not be on 24hr alert!

    Well done, Rob, hope they manage to get this under control. Sounds like a very precarious place to live.

  4. gee_gee says:

    Was the missing daughter ever found?

  5. doodahs says:

    Rob Lowe is an awesome guy and it doesn’t surprise me that he was so concerned for his neighbors.. he’s lived in the SB area for a long time. The ash is raining down all over LA and the smoke and smell of burning is unbelievable. My friends have been evacuated for the second time in 6 weeks as fires threaten their street… it’s a sad, sad fact of Southern California living.

  6. Celebitchy says:

    Gee Gee there have been no reported casualties so I think she must have been found. It wasn’t clear on Oprah if Rob Lowe knew about it or not.

  7. geronimo says:

    Wow, doodahs, that’s awful. How does anyone manage to get building/household insurance living there?

  8. LiteBrite says:

    gene simmons possibly?

  9. dr.grrl says:

    it’s SOOOO bad here right now! honestly the worst it’s been during all the fire seasons.

    i live in la la land by the beach and we are surrounded by all the fires. it started raining ash yesterday and hasn’t stopped. we are all trying to conserve power in the event of rolling blackouts.

    you can’t see the sun or the sky, there is just an orangy haze. i feel so bad for the Sylmar fire (just northeast of us) it seems that most major damage is there (old people and mobile home parks). 😥

  10. doodahs says:

    @dr.grrl: The Sylmar area is where my friends are at.. It’s pretty bad, however, they seem to have a good evacuation plan in place (I guess they know the drill since this is the second time in months they’ve had fires)… It seriously looks like it’s snowing here – little flakes of ash – and there are banks of black ash that have blown up around my house. That’s the first time I’ve seen that!

  11. Fiona says:

    How do we know Rob Lowe did this?Oprah lives 2 miles away and is never home anyhow?
    So answer ? # 1

  12. devilgirl says:

    While any fire is tragic, I have less sympathy for those owning multi million dollar estates and much more for those who are average citizens losing their homes. The millionaires are getting press because of who they are, while others get little mention because they are not spoiled actors/entertainers. There have been many middle income homeowners who have lost EVERYTHING, those are the ones who I care hearing about. Maybe Lowe and Oprah would like to help their less fortunate neighbors out after it is all said and done, instead of lamenting how close they were to tragedy striking them. Boo Hoo my 25 million dollar home ALMOST was burned!

  13. beebee says:

    What about the Olive View hospital?? Did anything happen to it??

  14. vdantev says:

    He doused the flames with his magic ego. 🙄

  15. doodahs says:

    @ geronimo: There are certain areas in LA where it is mandatory to have fire insurance before a lender will offer you a mortgage and the premiums can be high… There are also areas of LA where there is no fire risk, so it’s not an issue.. But then there are the earthquake zones – the liquefaction factor is an issue where the ground under houses will turn to quicksand under certain earthquake condition (my home is in a fire, fault line and liquefaction zone).. So there are many issues to consider when buying a home in LA 😕

  16. lindsay says:

    what? quicksand? SHIZZ!!
    I have always wanted a home in Cali… but QUICKSAND?!?!?!?!?!?!

  17. LisaB says:

    wow…that makes up for all the bad things his done in the past.

  18. mojoman says:

    Fire, earthquakes, quicksand?! That’s it, I’m packing my bags and move to Alaska!

  19. Ter says:

    The canyons are beautiful to live in in LA but hell trying to battle flames or flee in an orderly fashion. People know that and still build every year. More often than not homes burn down before services can reach them.

  20. Over the last few days I have read many opinions about the fires in Southern California, and some individuals feel the rich don’t deserve compassion or sympathy since they have “multiple homes” and are “rich”. First of all, it must be clear that to have compassion and feel sorry is not the same. You can feel compassion for the memories that were lost in the burnt homes that cannot be recovered, such as a baby was born in that house, or maybe they raised their children in the home that burnt down. Think of the markings on the door jam for each year of age for a given child has grown, or the nicks in the kitchen drawers because their kids played drums on the drawers while putting the knives away. Every house acquires its own memories no matter how many homes you have or don’t have, when it burns down you cannot recover those memories.

    When I walk through a big city like San Francisco I see all of the homeless people on the street asking with humility for help, and people walk by them as if they are invisible. Some people feel they do not serve compassion as the homeless man or woman must have done something to put themselves in such a position. If someone asked the homeless person what happened, you might find most are homeless because of a lost job, or a spouse died and the surviving spouse couldn’t do it alone. You would find that chances are there was no other option for them, and you might just find that there were homeless people displaced in the areas that burnt in the fires, and they must find a new place to be homeless at.

    To here such disdain about the rich or poor is troubling to me as we all are God’s children, we are all brothers and sisters, we are all dependant on our community to stand in unity as one in a disaster. Have we forgotten 911 and how it brought us together? Have we forgotten how precious life can be? What would you do if put in a position of any kind of loss? Would you feel hurt if no one cared about you?

    Give the rich a break because they have multiple houses, they still built memories in those houses. Remember the rich like Opera and other stars in the area donate enormous amounts of money to the poor, and volunteer their time to help the less fortunate. When you walk by a homeless person, try a little compassion you might someday need some yourself.

  21. Bronwyn says:

    I think it is wonderful that Rob Lowe helped people during a time of extreme crisis.

    It is a tragedy for ANYONE to lose their homes. Shame on those who find stars “spoiled”… they work, hard, for the things that they have and losing what they’ve worked for is also devestating for them. I feel bad for anyone who has been affected by these fires.

    mojoman ~ good luck moving to Alaska. Alaska is (also) on the Pacific Rim and is very prone to earthquakes and ptsunamis.

    Interesting choice to run to for “safety” reasons…

  22. Jane Rice says:

    I work at Xella in Adel, Ga, and we produce a product called AAC. Please anyone thinking of rebuilding check out AAC-it has the industry’s highest fire rating. Just take a few minutes and research before rebuilding with any other material. You can take a torch to one side of an AAC block and hold your hand on the other and not feel the heat. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone touched by the wild fires. God Bless!

  23. I saw the smoke from my house that day!

  24. Negligent people really needed to open their eyes wide and see the cause and effects of their actions. How many times have you driven down the road and seen an idiot throw their cigarette out the window? I don’t know about you, but it really makes me made and I want to track them down and give a lecture. Well, I have a few times but that can back fire if that person who threw the cigarette out the window is on the angry side.

    So, as long as we have idiots, wind and burnable fire areas, we will have disasters.

    Gail
    Mddesignhomes.com