Dick Van Dyke revealed in an interview on the “Today” show (via People) that his neighbors “saved” him while he was struggling to evacuate his home during this week’s Franklin Fire, which raged across Malibu and burned more than 2,600 acres. The wildfire caused widespread evacuations and power cutoffs in the Malibu area. Van Dyke fled is home just ahead of his 99th birthday on Dec. 13.
“It was coming from the hill, you could see it,” the “Mary Poppins” star said. “And oh my God. We got out of here. I was trying to crawl to the car. I had exhausted myself. I couldn’t get up. Three neighbors came and carried me out and came back and put out a little fire in the guest house and saved me.”
Van Dyke evacuated his home along with his wife, Arlene Silver, and their pets. The actor updated his fans on Facebook after they made it to safety, although he raised concern by saying that one of their pets, a cat named Bobo, had gone missing during the evacuation and therefore wasn’t able to leave their home. Fortunately, both Van Dyke’s home and his cat survived the wildfires.
“We found Bobo as soon as we arrived back home this morning,” Van Dyke wrote in a Facebook post on Dec. 12. “There was so much interest in his disappearance that Animal Control was called in to assist. But, thankfully he was easy to find and not harmed.”
Van Dyke was far from the only celebrity who had to evacuate Malibu because of the wildfires. Mira Sorvino and Cher also fled their homes, as did thousands of other residents in the area. The Santa Monica-Malibu school district even closed all Malibu schools on Dec. 10. Pepperdine University students were told to shelter in place.
Van Dyke’s evacuation news came after he was back in the headlines for appearing in Coldplay’s emotional music video for “All My Love.” The 98-year-old sang and danced in the clip as he gathered around his family for a reunion.
