Eugene Levy caught in gridlock of Los Angeles residents evacuating Pacific Palisades amid wind-fueled wildfire

Eugene Levy was among the Pacific Palisades, California residents caught in the gridlock of residents fleeing the upscale area amid a fast-moving wildfire in the Los Angeles hillsides, exacerbated by a fierce windstorm.

The Emmy-winning actor, 78, told the Los Angeles Times, which mentioned the actor in a report about the fire, that he could see dense smoke emanating from the area.

‘The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon,’ the Schitt’s Creek actor told the paper. ‘I couldn’t see any flames, but the smoke was very dark.’

The Hamilton, Canada-born star, who hosted the Primetime Emmys last fall with son Dan Levy, is the current honorary mayor of the Palisades.

The American Pie star assumed the honorary title in January of 2021, at an event coordinated by the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce and held via Zoom amid the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the online ceremony, Levy was supported by his Only Murders in the Building costar Martin Short; and Billy and Janice Crystal, who previously held the honorary positions, according to Patch.

Palisades officials appointed Levy as the honorary mayor on September 21, 2020, the outlet reported.

In addition to Crystals, other prominent personalities to be honorary mayor in the luxe locale include boxing icon Sugar Ray Leonard and late actors such as Virginia Bruce, Adam West and Bob Saget.   

Neither Eugene, nor his children Dan or Sarah made reference to the situation on their respective social media accounts as of Tuesday evening. 

Other notable Hollywood names were caught in the evacuations, as actor James Woods had to evacuate his Pacific Palisades, California home on Tuesday amid the dangerous wildfires.

The Oscar-nominated actor, 77, took to X/Twitter with multiple posts detailing the damage. 

Woods said in a series of posts, accompanied by a clip of a hillside blaze: ‘Hope everybody gets out safely … leaving.’

Woods posted a series of photos and clips documenting the blaze as he praised the efforts made by first responders to his 4.5 million followers.

‘We were blessed to have LA fire and police depts doing their jobs so well,’ Woods said. ‘We are safe and out. There are several elementary schools in our neighborhood and there was an enormous community effort to evacuate the children safely. Can not speak more highly of the LA fire and LAPD.’

In subsequent updates, Woods wrote, ‘Hope everybody gets out safely’ with views from his home’s deck and other residences nearby.

The Casino actor said he was unclear on the overall condition of his home after he and his family evacuated, but was able to monitor damage via a security camera on the premises.

‘To all the wonderful people who’ve reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned,’ Woods said. ‘Just letting you know that we were able to evacuate successfully. 

‘I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing, but sadly houses on our little street are not.’

He wrote Tuesday afternoon, ‘Just been informed our next door neighbor’s house is on fire. Fortunately they were safely evacuated.’

Woods, an Academy Award-nominee for the films Salvador (1986) and Ghosts of Mississippi Leaving (1996), spoke about precautions he took as a homeowner in the area he was hoping would pay off amid the weather-related complications.

‘We cleared and built pathways on our hillside with sprinkler systems that can be remotely managed,’ Woods said. ‘We also did brush clearance per local fire prevention mandates.

‘I’m hoping it has done some good. It’s hard to beat the winds this time of year though, if someone is careless.’

Actor Steve Guttenberg, 66, who lives in the Pacific Palisades, urged people who abandoned their cars to leave their keys behind so they could be moved to make way for fire trucks.

‘This is not a parking lot,’ the Three Men and a Baby actor told KTLA. ‘I have friends up there and they can’t evacuate … I´m walking up there as far as I can moving cars.’

The blaze could be seen for miles as scores of residents abandoned their cars and fled on foot to safety with roads blocked. 

One resident described seeing people crying and screaming as they ran away carrying their children and pets.

Forecasters warned the worst may be yet to come with the windstorm predicted to last for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph in mountains and foothills – including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months. 

Roughly half a million utility customers were at risk of having their power shut off to reduce the risk of equipment sparking blazes.

In the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in western Los Angeles, a fire swiftly consumed nearly 2 square miles of land, sending up a dramatic plume of smoke visible across the city. Residents in Venice Beach, some six miles away, reported seeing the flames. It was one of several blazes across the area.

Sections of Interstate 10 and the scenic Pacific Coast Highway were closed to all non-essential traffic to aid in evacuation efforts. But other roads were blocked. Some residents jumped out of their vehicles to get out of danger and waited to be picked up.

The neighborhood that borders Malibu about 20 miles west of downtown LA includes hillside streets of tightly packed homes along winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and stretches down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean. 

The erratic weather caused President Joe Biden to cancel plans to travel to inland Riverside County, California, where he was to announce the establishment of two new national monuments in the state. 

Biden will deliver his remarks in Los Angeles instead.

The National Weather Service said the wind event that was expected to peak early Wednesday could be the strongest Santa Ana windstorm in more than a decade across Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The Los Angeles Unified School District said it was temporarily relocating students from three campuses in the Pacific Palisades area due to the fire.

Amazon and MGM Studios canceled a premiere of Jennifer Lopez´s new film  Unstoppable due to the fires and high winds.

The winds will act as an ‘atmospheric blow-dryer’ for vegetation, bringing a long period of fire risk, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

‘We really haven’t seen a season as dry as this one follow a season as wet as the previous one,’ Swain said Monday.

Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, where there´s been very little rain so far this season.

Southern California hasn´t seen more than 0.1 inches of rain since early May. Much of the region has fallen into moderate drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Meanwhile, up north, there have been multiple drenching storms.

Areas where gusts could create extreme fire conditions include the charred footprint of last month´s wind-driven Franklin Fire, which damaged or destroyed 48 structures, mostly homes, in and around Malibu.