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 Among neighborhoods under evacuation orders was the posh area of
Brentwood, a section on the west side of the city that became
world famous in 1994 when former football star O.J. Simpson was
accused of killing his ex-wife and a waiter there.
Today Brentwood is home to basketball superstar LeBron James,
A-list Hollywood actors, wealthy producers and media company
executives.
James, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, said he and his
family had to drive around in the early morning hours looking
for a place to stay after fleeing the home he shares with his
wife and three children.
"Had to emergency evacuate my house and I’ve been driving around
with my family trying to get rooms," James wrote on Twitter
around 4 a.m. He later added that he found a place to take them
in. "Crazy night man!," he said.
James bought a $23 million, eight-bedroom home in Brentwood in
late 2017, according to media reports.
On the northern edge of Brentwood, a cluster of several
multimillion-dollar homes were reduced to smoldering debris
along a street festooned with Halloween decorations.
A fake bloody arm, part of the holiday decorations, had turned
into melted plastic at one dwelling, and a giant skull replica
remained in the front of another. Heavy smoke and ash filled the
air as water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers buzzed
overhead.
DARK FATE
Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also
said he was among the thousands who had to evacuate overnight.
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"If you are in an evacuation zone, don’t screw around. Get out,"
Schwarzenegger wrote on Twitter.
A red-carpet premiere for Schwarzenegger's new movie, "Terminator:
Dark Fate," that had been scheduled for Monday night was canceled
due to fires in the area.
The "Terminator" premiere had been scheduled to take place in
Hollywood, several miles from the fire zone. Food intended for the
premiere party was being donated to local American Red Cross
shelters that were housing fire evacuees, Paramount Pictures said.
"Agents of SHIELD" actor Clark Gregg and "Sons of Anarchy" creator
Kurt Sutter also said on Twitter that they had been forced to leave
their homes.
The streets of Brentwood became familiar to TV viewers when Simpson
stood trial on charges of stabbing ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and
waiter Ronald Goldman. Prosecutors alleged Simpson killed the pair
at her Brentwood home and then fled to his nearby mansion.
Simpson was acquitted of murder but later found liable for the
deaths in a civil case. He told the Associated Press in June he now
lives in Las Vegas.
Monday's fire erupted in the hills above where Simpson had lived and
was near the Getty Center, a museum for the art collection of late
oil magnate J. Paul Getty that includes works by Rembrandt and Van
Gogh, according to the museum's website.
The Getty fire has forced schools to close in several areas,
including the public school district encompassing Santa Monica and
Pacific Palisades and the University of California Los Angles
(UCLA).
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Additional reporting by Omar Younis;
Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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