Aussie actor Vernon Wells reveals the moment he lost everything in the LA wildfires: ‘40 years of my life gone’

Aussie actor Vernon Wells has spoken about the moment he learned he had lost everything in the Los Angeles wildfires, which have killed two people and forced thousands more to flee their homes.

The Mad Max 2 star said he initially he believed the fire was on course to miss his home in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, only to be forced to evacuate just hours later.

Pacific Palisades was one of the worst-hit areas where wildfires have now consumed more than 2000ha across the picturesque neighbourhood in west Los Angeles County.

“(Our firefighter) neighbour stayed waiting for the fire trucks to come,” Wells told Michael Usher and Monique Wright on Sunrise.

“While they were coming, he started spraying the houses down with a garden hose.

“He rang us and he was in tears and he said, ‘I am so, so sorry to tell you — I tried so hard to save your house and it’s gone. Everything’s gone’.

“He said, ‘The other five houses, including mine, have gone as well, and that was the start of it’.

“About 150 houses went up. So far, they’re saying 10,000 homes in the Pacific Palisades area have been burnt.”

Usher asked if the actor had been yet able to take stock of what he had lost in the wildfires.

“I had all stuff from awards I’d won for acting, photographs from films. I had a big thing from our wedding,” he said.

“We had all this stuff that we’d accumulated over the time we’ve been together and, suddenly it’s not there anymore.

“Everything, I mean, everything.

“We left with clothes on our back, our dog, our turtle, and a stray butterfly that couldn’t fly that my wife was feeding.”

Wells said by the time we was told to evacuate he only had time to get themselves and their animals out.

“We’re still wearing the clothes that we left in. That’s all we’ve got. And everything else is gone,” he said.

“I mean, 40 odd years of my life and my wife’s life are gone. I mean, it hasn’t sunk in, to be blunt.”

But Wells was thankful all his neighbours were safe.

“I am so, so glad that everybody who lived in our community got out,” he said.

“There’s a lot of older people. People came together, the community came together.

“They went and made sure these people were able to get out. And that’s my overriding feeling, is that no matter what happened, we stayed together as a community.

“Yes, we lost everything. But you know what someone said to me this morning? It can all be replaced in your mind. You know you’ve got it in your mind. Everything is there.”

Well said much of the neighbourhood had been destroyed.

“Most of Pacific Palisades itself is kind of not there anymore,” he said.

“The school’s gone. Most of the shopping centres are gone. It’s like being in a war zone.

“I said to someone this morning, you feel what the people in the second World War (felt) when their cities were bombed into oblivion ... in reality, not being smart about that, but just saying that the feeling is suddenly everything’s gone.”