Amid the devastating ongoing Palisades Fire, actor Sebastian Harrison did everything possible to escape.
In a video from his harrowing ordeal shared with CNN, 59, the actor is seen hiding behind boulders as the dangerous wind gusts near his Malibu area home made it difficult to move.
“So, I’m still hiding behind the boulders. Sparks [are] coming, so I have to duck behind these rocks. I’m ready to jump into the ocean. All the firemen, they got the hell out here. They evacuated quickly. I should have followed suit, but right now I’m here, and phone doesn’t really work,” he said in the video.
“No one knows where the hell I am,” he said.
Harrison told CNN that his original plan was to try to protect his home despite evacuation orders. He and his wife, Livia Pillmann, lost contact for two hours.
“When I saw that there was a curtain of fire, I left, but I went across the street, and my plan B was, I’m going to see if it goes through the property, and perhaps maybe a structure or two is going to survive, because my father lives next to me,” said Harrison.
“He had five structures. We had seven. And, you know, I thought, maybe I’ll be able to put out one, if it goes through,” he continued. “The problem is, at a certain point, I saw the fire trucks just quickly leave. And I thought, Oh, that’s not a good sign.”
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Harrison said that he then rushed to get into his car, but began going towards the ocean when it wouldn’t start.
“I couldn’t see because there was embers and smoke and clouds and flying debris and all sorts of, you know, things flying in the air. So I was covering my head. I fell down, hurt myself a little bit, but I was eventually able to hide behind some boulders,” he said.
Pillmann shared her experience on Instagram, expressing that she and their family got out “just on time.”
In a follow-up post, she confirmed next to a series of pictures that their entire property was destroyed.
“Devastation of the Palisades Fire. Still cannot believe what happened 💔,” she wrote. “It’s with a heavy heart that I share the news of the recent fire that destroyed our property. It’s hard to find the words when you’re faced with something like this. The flames took so much, but we’re holding on to the memories that live on in our hearts.”
The Palisades Fire, which broke out on Tuesday, Jan. 7, remains the largest fire ravaging Los Angeles County. The fire has destroyed over 21,000 acres in Pacific Palisades and Malibu and is currently only 8% contained, per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
As of Friday afternoon, the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner (DME) reported that there were 11 fire-related deaths in the L.A. area.
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