Celeb Homes threaten as fire torch Penn's Land

Fires Torch Penn's Land, Threaten Celeb Homes Natalie Finn
Mon Oct 22, 5:12 PM ET



Los Angeles (E! Online) - Private beaches, a fleet of luxury cars, 24-hour private security and sweeping ocean views are no match for Mother Nature, especially on a windy day in SoCal after a hot, dry summer.

A wildfire that began early Sunday morning in Malibu scorched a plot of land belonging to Sean Penn on Monday and has forced evacuations all over the tony Pacific-adjacent enclave, including gated communities where celebs such as Mel Gibson, Jennifer Aniston and Kelsey Grammar reside.

Penn's lot at the top of Carbon Canyon Road, where he used to have a home before it was destroyed in an arson-suspected 1993 brushfire, contained two trailers, both of which burned after firefighters determined that, since they were unoccupied, there was no use risking lives to save them.

Photos posted on splashnews.com, which first reported Penn's loss, show the burning structures.

No damage has been reported, however, to David Duchovny and Téa Leoni's home, which is right near Penn's property.

Firefighters were also spotted clustered outside David Arquette and Courteney Cox's home, but according to images on celebrity photo site X17.com, the house remains intact and it looks to have been hosed down to ward off damage.

The gated community where Gibson, Olivia Newton-John and country singer Tanya Tucker have homes has been evacuated. James Cameron and Cindy Crawford's residences are also said to be in danger; Mark Hamill and his wife are also packed and ready to go should the siren sound, per the actor's rep.

Grammar and Victoria Principal were also among those who were forced out of town over the weekend, according to their publicists.

The Malibu fire, which as of Monday afternoon was reportedly only 10 percent contained, started at about 4:50 a.m. Sunday and has since charred at least 2,400 acres.

According to authorities, the blaze was probably triggered when the oft-destructive Santa Ana winds, which were blowing at about 65 miles per hour on Sunday, crossed paths with some high-voltage power lines.

Meanwhile, a dozen conflagrations have sprung up all over the Southland, affecting parts of the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, San Diego and Lake Arrowhead. More than 250,000 people have been evacuated altogether.

Taking matters into their own hands were The Hills' Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, who talked to Ryan Seacrest on Monday about their own containment efforts when a brushfire inched toward their Los Angeles-area home on Sunday.

"Spencer was literally down there putting out the fire, and I was screaming at him 'Come back here, the firemen are coming!'” Montag said on Seacrest's KIIS-FM morning show.

“It was here and I was putting out the fire with the hose,” Pratt added. “Until the firemen got there. They were fast.”

Also affected Monday was Young Hollywood's home away from home—Promises treatment center. Patients staying at the Malibu rehab facility, where Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Ben Affleck and a host of others have stopped to sober up, were transferred to an outpatient locale after the area was included in a mandatory evacuation.

"Part of the problem is that Promises is on a single-lane road, and we didn't want to have problems with a lot of people trying to get out at one time," an L.A. County Fire Department spokesperson told reporters.

Despite the allure of all that oceanside luxury, Malibu has always been a notorious hot spot, so to speak.

Suzanne Somer's beachside manse was one of 11 homes destroyed when a brushfire, spurred by big winds, whipped through Malibu Road in January. Penn's residence was one of 268 homes that burned in 1993 when a possible arson blaze killed three people and caused $219 million in damage.