Jimmy Kimmel he was overcome with emotion as he spoke Wildfires in Los Angeles.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, 57, returned to his late-night ABC slot on Monday, January 13, and opened the show with an emotional monologue about the fires that started earlier this month and continue to burn, decimating homes and displacing thousands.
“It’s been a very scary, very stressful, very strange week here in LA, where we work, where we live, where our kids go to school,” Kimmel said. “We returned to our studio, which we had to evacuate.”
“That’s our building right there, El Capitan,” he said, showing footage of a fire near the studio where the show was filmed. “This fire was so close to our theater. Many of us had to leave our homes in a hurry. Some of our colleagues lost their homes. It was horrible.”
As the wildfires continue to spread through the Los Angeles area, several celebrities have taken to social media to share how they have been affected by the fires. “Evacuated and safe with children, dogs and cats. We are praying and thankful for the first responders,” Mandy Moore wrote on Wednesday, January 8, in an Instagram Story statement. In the next post, she (…)
Kimmel continued: “Everybody who lives in this town knows someone — most of us, multiple people — families, friends, colleagues, neighbors, whose houses have burned down. And the truth is that we don’t even know if it’s over.”
Although the fires continue to ravage LA, the comedian said he was encouraged to see so many people come together during the tragedy.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was a harrowing, shocking, awful experience. But it was also, in many ways, a beautiful experience because we see our fellow citizens coming together to support each other again,” he said. “People who lost their own homes volunteered in parking lots, helping others who lost theirs.”
Kimmel noted that his Jimmy Kimmel Live! sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez“he almost had to come live with me” because he was in danger of being evacuated from his home.
Los Angeles experienced a terrifying natural weather event – and its star-studded community was hit hard. An extreme wind storm, driven by Santa Ana gusts, sparked fast-burning brush fires around 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7, sending drivers along Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive fleeing their cars for safety, according to (…)
The late-night talk show host said he had a total of nearly 20 people hiding from the fire. (Kimmel and his wife Molly McNearney has two children, Jane, 10, and Billy, 7. He also shares two grown-up children, Katie33, i Kevin31, with his ex-wife Gina Maddy.)
“19 people and four dogs lived with us. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” Kimmel said. “It’s so weird looking around your house and deciding what you want to get, then fighting with your kids about what they want to get. We had to leave a lot of stuffed animals.”
Check it out LAFD website for local reports on forest fires and click here for resources on how to help those affected.