A CBS News segment about the Montecito fire from Friday. Fires are now burning throughout Southern California

Montecito, a small but very upscale suburb of Los Angeles, became the scene of a roaring out of control brush fire turned home-destroying blaze on Friday. Many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger have homes there. All of those homes seem to have escaped the inferno, but Taxi and Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd has not been so lucky.

The caretaker for actor Christopher Lloyd’s house “fled for his life” in a firestorm last night, said Lisa Loiacono of Sotheby’s International Realty. Loiacono manages the property for Lloyd, who is filming on location in Vancouver, Canada, and was not in Montecito. Loiacono said the property’s 8 acres were all “torched,” and the house “at least partially burned, if not totally.” Loiacono was unable to enter the area this morning.

The house, Lloyd’s main residence, had been listed for sale in the spring of 2007 at $11.3 million but was recently withdrawn from the market while he made upgrades. He owns a second, smaller, home in Montecito that is still on the market for $3.6 million.

The property believed lost is one of Montecito’s more unusual homes. The 5,500-square-foot main house has one bedroom, and there is a separate guesthouse. The house was built in 1972 from adobe bricks made on site. And the living room and bedroom share an outdoor area with a large patio and stone-lined reflecting pool.

Lloyd personally cared for many of the rare and exotic plants on the grounds. It is also believed that the Mountain Drive home of Eva Loggins, Kenny Loggins’ ex-wife, was destroyed by the fire.

[From Los Angeles Times]

burned homes in Montecito

Rob Lowe, a full time Montecito resident whose home appears to be safe, was fleeing the area with his children. He was stopping by neighbors’ homes to make sure others were getting out, as well, when he found a family trapped behind their gated drive. The gate was powered by electricity and because of the fire, the power was out and they couldn’t get the gate to open. Lowe and some others were able to pry the gate and the family got out. Lowe discussed the situation with Winfrey.

Lowe said among the evacuating neighbors he saw was filmmaker Ivan Reitman, director of “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters,” and a neighbor with whom he and Winfrey are mutual friends.

“The next door neighbor’s house, they were trapped behind their gates and could not get out,” Lowe said.

“The next door neighbors the Simmons? You mean the Simmons?,” Winfrey asked.

“The Simmons could not get out of their gate. Their daughter was lost on the property and so I had another gentleman and I pried the gates open. … We tried to comfort the Simmons, and embers were raining down. They were in our hair, they were in our shirts. The wind was easily 70 miles an hour and it was absolutely Armageddon.”

[From AP]

The area’s median home value, even in the current property slump, is $2 million. Over 5,400 homes have been evacuated and more than 110 homes have been destroyed by the flames.

Note by Celebitchy:

Which Simmons were saved?
When I first heard this story I thought that Lowe might have saved Rev. Run and his family from the MTV reality show “Run’s House,” because their daughters are older and seem more likely to go missing like that, but they live in New Jersey. Russell Simmons’ ex wife, Kimora Lee, and their two daughters, Ming Lee, 8, and Aoki Lee, 6, may be the Simmons referred to in this story. I watched the Oprah show mentioned in this story and it’s not clear who Lowe was referring to. We have contacted Russell Simmons’ rep for clarification and will let you know. No matter which Simmons family Lowe was helping everyone seems to be ok now and that’s what matters.

---

Update: It was not Russell Simmons or Rev. Run:
According to Russell Simmon’s rep it was not Russell, or his brothers Danny or Rev. Run and his family, who do not own homes in that area. It sounded like it might be a famous Simmons family by the way Oprah phrased it, but these are her neighbors and it is likely that she knows them which is why she mentioned them by name.

---

Fires are burning throughout southern California
Fires are also raging in communities southeast and northwest of Los Angeles throughout southern California. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. 2,000 acres have been burned southeast of LA in Yorba Linda, Brea, Anaheim and Corona. A separate massive brush fire has erupted in Sylmar northwest of LA, which LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said has destroyed more homes than any other fire in the past decade. Here’s a google map of the Sylmar fire, and a photo map showing the fires throughout southern California. Parts of Interstate 5 have been shut down and Los Angeles has undergone rolling blackouts as some lines were taken out of service due to the fire.

The Montecito fire is still burning, and fire officials say it is 60% contained.

You can keep up with this story on Google News.

[details from LA Times]

Here’s a more recent news report about the fires. There’s a map at around 25 seconds in that shows where the fires are burning. Our thoughts are with the people who have fled and lost homes and thank goodness there are no reported casualties.