Bill Hader Issues Dire Warning to Those Impacted by LA Wildfires

Fire crews in Los Angeles are on day 10 of battling the deadly wildfires which broke out in and around the city last week, and are still a long ways from containment. Over 100,000 residents are still under evacuation orders or face the potential threat of evacuation. And while surveying the damage to his own home, Bill Hader delivered a warning to those who may still potentially be affected.

KTLA 5 News spoke with the former Saturday Night Live star when he returned to his Pacific Palisades neighborhood for the first time on Tuesday, Jan. 14, after having been evacuated the week prior. Hader said he was at work at the time the fires broke out, but traffic quickly gridlocked before he could make it back home.

While he found his home still standing, sustaining only some damage, many of his neighbors weren't so fortunate.

"I'm like in shock, but I'm glad my family got out. You know, I feel this is such a great community and it's just—I really am at a loss for words," the 46-year-old lamented. "I mean, this happened so insanely fast. It's kind of mind-boggling how fast it happens, so I just hope everybody is safe. That's all you can hope right now."

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Hader then stressed the importance of taking the evacuation orders very seriously.

"If you get an evacuation notice, just, you know, leave," he said. "Because I do know people who were kind of like 'Well, wait and see' and things like that, or, 'I’m in the yellow zone" or whatever.' This thing, once it went red, you couldn’t get out."

"It's OK to, you know, don’t listen to your friends, like 'Ah, you’re being a little freaked out.' Just get out," Hader gravely noted.

"People keep saying ‘unreal,’ it does. It doesn’t seem real. I’m sorry I’m in shock. It’s just gone. Everything. Alphabet streets, which is, to me, kind of the heart of the Palisades, this beautiful beautiful area is gone. The whole thing is gone," he added.

The Palisades and Eaton fires, in addition to a handful of smaller blazes, have burned a combined 38,600 acres in Los Angeles County as of Thursday morning. And while the Palisades fire is currently at 22 percent containment and the Eaton Fire at 55 percent containment, firefighters are hoping to make some progress now that winds have finally died down.

Aerial footage has show the massive scale of the destruction, with thousands of homes impacted.

NEW: Here is a sweeping view of the Pacific Palisades, taken today at a lower altitude… beginning just south of Sunset Blvd to Chautauqua Blvd. #PalisadesFire pic.twitter.com/0OV9FAnmcP

— Chris Cristi (@abc7chriscristi) January 16, 2025