California’s Thomas fire grows to fifth largest in state history as celebrities evacuate

Gene Blevins | Reuters

Fire fighters attack the Thomas Fire’s north flank with backfires as they continue to fight a massive wildfire north of Los Angeles, near Ojai , California, U.S., December 9, 2017.

“Praying for the people in my area,” he said in a livestreamed Instagram video. “Hope everyone is getting out safe like we are and thanks for the prayers and thoughts. Good luck to the firefighters. We need you.”

Talk show hosts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres also live in communities threatened by the blaze. Winfrey owns a home in Montecito and DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi bought an oceanfront estate for $18.6 million in Carpinteria in October.

Director George Lucas along with actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis also own homes in the area. It was not known whether any were in the city during the fires.

DeGeneres tweeted Sunday that she also had to start evacuating because her home is under threat of being burned.

“We just had to evacuate our pets,” she said. “I’m praying for everyone in our community and thankful to all the incredible firefighters.”

Ellen DeGeneres tweet

Winfrey also posted to Twitter about the blaze and said she was praying for her community and beyond.

Oprah Winfrey tweet

In Southern California, there’s finally some good news in the weather forecast this week as the Santa Ana winds are forecast to be much less powerful than the ferocious breezes from last week, the National Weather Service said.

However, locally windy to breezy conditions will continue to buffet the mountains and some canyon locations through Wednesday, according to AccuWeather, which said the late-night and morning hours will be the windiest times of the day.

The weather service in Los Angeles said that “the lower wind speeds will be a boon to the firefighting efforts, but the very low humidity will continue and these will hinder the efforts to control the fires.”