James Woods‘ home is still standing as the Palisades Fire rages on.
The actor, 77, posted a video to X, writing that he went to visit what he thought would be the remnants of his home, but instead was surprised to find it still standing.
“A miracle has happened,” Woods wrote of the view from his deck. “We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told is gone forever, is still standing. In this hellish landscape, ‘standing’ is relative, but smoke and other damage is not like the utter destruction around us.”
In the video, Woods stood on top of the hill overlooking what he said was Palisades High School, showing “everything below us.” The destruction from the fire extends as far as the eye can see in the video. Meanwhile, helicopters can be heard in the background as Woods shows what’s left of his surrounding community.
As Woods panned over to the left, short of breath, the Ghosts of Mississippi actor said “Oh My God. That’s our neighbor’s house.”
Woods also showed his yard pointing out a young man named Francis helping out. “Francis, who’s father we saved, is now putting out fires now on our hillside.” Woods gave a full 360 view of the surrounding area with billows of smoke rising in the distance. He narrowed back in on his neighbor’s yard. “Jeez, look at this. Oh my God,” Woods is heard saying.
In another post, Woods shared more about Francis’s 94-year-old father, whom Woods and a neighbor helped rescue.
“The man on the left, Robert Trinkkeller, is a hero,” Woods captioned the photo on X. “By the grace of God, he stayed behind when the evacuation order was given. When I called the man on the right, our neighbor, in Boston to be sure his 94 year-old father had been evacuated, he was devastated that a replacement caregiver had left his father behind.”
Woods wrote that the man’s son flew out the next day as they continued to distinguish remaining fires on the hillside.
“If you are blessed to have such wonderful neighbors, you are luckier than you know,” Woods continued.
On X Tuesday, Jan. 7, Woods said he had just recently finished renovating his home before the Palisades fire broke out. The next day, Woods gave an update that the fire had grown near his home in the Palisades, triggering the smoke detectors.
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“I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods wrote on X.
Woods also thanked fans and anyone who reached out to him. “To all the wonderful people who’ve reached out to us, thank you for being so concerned,” he wrote on X. “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.”
