LOS ANGELES — Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Vice President Kamala Harris are among the many famous people at risk of losing their luxury homes as the raging, windstorm-fueled Palisades fire roared through this tony oceanside Los Angeles neighborhood Tuesday and Wednesday, destroying homes and forcing 30,000 residents to evacuate amid clouds of smoke and clogged roadways.

“The neighborhood I grew up in is burning to the ground,” Chet Hanks, the musician son of Bay Area-reared actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, posted on Instagram Story on Tuesday evening. Chet Hanks also said, “Pray for Palisades.”

Affleck was photographed in his vehicle, with an understandably worried expression on his face, while evacuating from his new $20 million home, as Newsweek reported. He reportedly was heading to the Brentwood residence of his ex-wife Jennifer Garner, with whom he shares three children, TMZ said. Her area of Los Angeles in on standby for evacuation, TMZ said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s home in Brentwood was placed under an evacuation order, though she’s been in Washington, D.C., this week and her husband, Doug Emhoff, also was not at the home, her spokesperson posted on X.

“My community and possibly my home is on fire. Many of my friends will lose their homes,” Jamie Lee Curtis wrote on Instagram, after the veteran star shared that she and her family had safely evacuated. “It is a terrifying situation and I’m grateful to the firefighters and all of the good Samaritans who are helping people get out of the way of the blaze.”

Actor James Woods documented the flames coming perilously close to his property in several posts on X, sharing photos taken from his security cameras, according to the Daily Beast. “Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully,” he wrote on Tuesday afternoon. “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly houses on our little street are not.”

The Palisades fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday near Piedra Morada Drive in the hills above Pacific Palisades and was pushed southwest by intense Santa Ana wind gusts, some nearing 100 mph, according to the Los Angeles Times and CNN.

By Wednesday morning, the fire had expanded to 5,000 acres, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, burning down to the Pacific Coast Highway, where it destroyed homes. It also scorched the grounds of the Getty Villa, though the building and its contents remained safe. Wide swaths of Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu remain under mandatory evacuation orders, the Los Angeles Times also reported.

Other Hollywood figures who call the area home include Bradley Cooper, Adam Sandler, Eugene Levy, Michael Keaton, Steven Spielberg, Mark Hamill, Miles Teller, Michael Mann, Kathleen Kennedy and Steve Guttenberg, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Indeed, Guttenberg in fact was spotted helping clear a path for his neighbors to evacuate from the celebrity haven, the Daily Beast reported.

As the fire rapidly advanced, panicking drivers abandoned their cars on Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive, the Los Angeles Times reported, leading to bumper-to-bumper traffic jams as more people attempted to evacuate. The neighborhood is highly desirable for the rich and powerful because of its seclusion, but that seclusion carries risks when emergencies occur, the Times also said.

Guttenberg jumped into action, helping firefighters move cars abandoned on Palisades Drive, he told local station KTLA 5. The “Police Academy” star urged people who abandon their cars to leave their keys in the ignition so that he and others can easily move them to clear a path for other evacuees.

“I live right up the hill,” Guttenberg told the station, pointing towards the mountainside where flames were visible from the street. “There are families up there, there are pets up there, there are people who really need help.”

Guttenberg also said: “We’ve got a huge fire up there. We’ve got huge winds.”

Eugene Levy, the “Schitt’s Creek” star who was named honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades in 2021, told the Los Angeles Times that he was able to evacuate early on Tuesday. “I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark,” he said.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Spencer Pratt shared a TikTok clip, showing flames burning through the property he shares with his wife, Heidi, and their two young sons, People reported. On Tuesday, before he and his family evacuated, he shared video of firefighters near his home, using a plane to dump water on flames on a nearby hillside, TMZ said.

The Palisades fire and other fire emergencies in the Los Angeles area prompted Amazon MGM Studios and Universal Pictures to cancel their respective premiere events scheduled for Tuesday night, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Amazon MGM was planning to hold the premiere for its film “Unstoppable,” starring Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome, at the Directors Guild of America building in Los Angeles.

“In light of today’s safety concerns around heightened wind activity and fire outbreaks in Los Angeles, we regret to inform you that we are cancelling tonight’s premiere of ‘Unstoppable,’” Amazon Studios said. Universal also canceled its premiere for “Wolf Man,” starring Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Netflix also postponed an event for its Oscar contender "Emilia Peréz" “out of an abundance of caution due to the severe winds and fires currently affecting the L.A. area,” The Hollywood Reporter said. And, Sony Pictures Classics canceled a screening of “I’m Still Here,” where Guillermo del Toro was to host a Q&A with Brazilian director Walter Salles and Golden Globe winner Fernanda Torres. Del Toro also had to evacuate from his home, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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