Sunset Fire ignites in California’s famed Hollywood Hills
The Sunset Fire is one of several fires burning across the greater Los Angeles area, forcing more than 100,000 people to leave.
The Southern California coastline continued to burn Thursday as powerful fires ravaged some of the nation’s most recognizable neighborhoods.
As firefighters worked overnight to quell the fast-moving flames, many celebrities took to social media to express gratitude for the first responders, while a few used the moment to share discontent over the state’s leadership and handling of the crisis.
“Shazam!” star Zachary Levi appeared on Fox News Wednesday to voice frustration with California politicians for their handling of the multiple wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area, as well as others that have affected the state in the past.
“This is just incredible mismanagement, incredibly poor leadership; I would go so far as to say that it’s criminally negligent,” said Levi, who spoke to Fox from Austin, Texas. The actor has previously described himself as a Libertarian and backed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign before throwing his support behind President-elect Donald Trump.
From the San Gabriel Mountains to the Hollywood Hills and west to the Malibu coastline, flames engulfed the lower half of the state, propelled by relentless Santa Ana gusts that slightly let up overnight Wednesday.
At least six fires were active in Los Angeles County as of Thursday evening, Cal Fire reported, though the most devastating remain the Pacific Palisades and Eaton blazes, which both are 0% contained. The regions consumed by these fires happen to be home to many A-listers who live and work in the country’s entertainment capital.
James Woods blasts California leadership amid fires
Actor James Woods took to X Wednesday night to express his discontentment with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, posting a screenshot of a story published by the New York Post that claimed Bass slashed fire department funding by millions before the blaze.
“The most important task ahead is not to be bitter, but…” he wrote. In a later post he called both Bass and Gavin Newsom “liberal idiots.” Newsom, a Democrat, is the governor of California.
“One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs,” he wrote of the pair.
A Wednesday article published by Politico with the headline “Wildfire response threatens to end Karen Bass’ extended honeymoon” reported this funding cut “assertion is wrong.”
“The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November,” Politico reported. “In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle, according to (Los Angeles councilmember Bob) Blumenfield’s office, although overall concerns about the department’s staffing level have persisted for a number of years.”
Budget summaries for the city show the fire department’s allotment did decrease by 2%, from around $837 million in 2023-24 to $819.5 million in 2024-25. However, a pie chart of total spending indicates the fire department’s real estate in the overall budget remained around 15% year over year.
USA TODAY has reached out to Bass’ office for comment.
LA officials respond to claims about fire department budget cuts
CBS News reported, “The city council in November approved a four-year $203 million contract with the firefighter’s union to help boost wages and health benefits for staff, drawing from the budget’s general fund.”
A spokesperson for LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield told ABC News that November’s updated budget reflected a $53 million increase year-over-year.
However, multiple outlets have noted that LA Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley wrote a Dec. 4 memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners that revealed a “critical need for resource restoration” amid cuts.
“Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) is facing unprecedented operational challenges due to the elimination of critical civilian positions and a $7 million reduction in Overtime Variable Staffing Hours (V-Hours),” the memo reads. “These budgetary reductions have adversely affected the Department’s ability to maintain core operations, such as technology and communication infrastructure, payroll processing, training, fire prevention, and community education.
In a Thursday press conference, Bass denied the budget cuts had an impact on LAFD’s response. “I think if you go back and look at the reductions that have been made, there were no reductions that would have impacted the situation we were dealing with over the last couple of days,” she said, according to CNN.
Sara Foster says Democratic politicians ‘have ruined our state’ while Beyonce’s mom defends LA mayor
Actress and producer Sara Foster echoed Woods’ sentiment in an X post of her own, writing Wednesday: “We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared.”
Foster demanded both Bass and Newsom resign, writing, “Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.”
Tina Knowles, mother to music icon Beyoncé, defended Bass on Instagram Thursday, reposting a Reel from creator @reeciecolbert that argued conservative media’s blaming of Bass was racial and that the fire’s magnitude was a direct result of climate change.
“This mayor has always worked diligently for the betterment of Los Angeles and all communities. Another opportunity to attack a black woman in power,” Knowles wrote alongside the post. “Don’t believe the hype!”
Mel Gibson blames Gov. Newsom for fires: ‘He didn’t do anything’
Speaking in an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” that released Thursday, Mel Gibson said a video sent by his son showed his neighborhood “in flames.”
“In 2019, I think, Newsom said, ‘I’m gonna take care of the forests and maintain the forests and do all that kinda stuff’ — he didn’t do anything,” Gibson said. “I think all our tax dollars probably went to Gavin’s hair gel. It’s sad; the place is just on fire.”
On Wednesday, Newsom’s office released a press release detailing measures “the state has taken to protect Californians from wildfires,” which included reportedly doubling prescribed fires between 2021 and 2023.
Rogan, who supported Trump’s presidential bid, said Democrat Newsom “ruined the state, personally ruined it.”
Zachary Levi criticizes Gavin Newsom’s handling of water in California
As for the water reservoirs claim, the tanks in Pacific Palisades were indeed without water midway through the blaze, but the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power denied claims that they were not at capacity before the start of the fire.
In a press conference Wednesday departmental officials said the tanks in the area were all the way full at around 1 million gallons in each of the three at the start of the blaze, but those supplies ran out by Wednesday morning.
Steve Guttenberg helps out during Pacific Palisades fire
Steve Guttenberg told USA TODAY he likes to “be positive and make the world a better place” and he proved that days later helping out during LA fires
“We had a tremendous demand on our system… we pushed the system to the extreme,” said Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the LA Department of Water and Power. “If there’s a message to take away from me today, it’s ‘I need our customers to really conserve water.'”
California has suffered a drought for many years, with government officials often urging residents to conserve water by swapping grass lawns for drought-friendly plants and limiting shower time.
“He clearly knows that the biggest problem that we suffer in California are these fires and, by the way, the mudslides that follow,” Levi said, taking aim at Newsom and accusing the governor of doing “not just nothing, but worse than nothing.”
Also referencing the budget, and claiming there are ways to save water that are not being employed, Levi seemed to allege that Newsom’s negligence might be intentional. He also blasted the leadership for allowing many homes in California to be denied fire insurance.
“They must be held responsible,” he told host Jesse Watters. “This is not good leadership.”
Insurers are private, meaning the government has only so much control over their policies. At the end of 2024, though, the state’s insurance commissioner enacted a measure aimed at expanding insurance coverage in wildfire-afflicted areas after many companies scaled back in the wake of other devastating blazes.
Allstate, which had suspended all new policies in the state in 2022, signaled interest in returning to the state after the changes, The New York Times reports.
In 2024, State Farm, the largest insurer in the state, cut policies in the Santa Monica Mountains, resulting in 70% of customers in Pacific Palisades – about 1,600 homeowners – losing coverage, the Times reports.
The California FAIR plan, a state-run alternative used by many abandoned by larger insurers, has filled the gap in some particularly fire-prone neighborhoods.