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Saskatoon-born actor Kim Coates is feeling a combination of gratitude and sorrow.
While his Los Angeles home was spared from the destruction caused by the Eaton Canyon wildfire, the four homes next to it were destroyed.
“You never think it’s going to happen to you until it happens to you,” he said on Friday’s Evan Bray Show.
Listen to the full interview here:
Coates said he was in New York at the time on Wednesday when he received a phone call from his neighbour John warning Coates that he was about to lose his house to the flames.
Coates said John refused to flee the area and stayed behind to cut the gas lines of homes in the neighbourhood and salvage what he could.
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“You never want that phone call, but he stayed on the phone. He said ‘Oh my God, the winds are shifting,” he said.
“I had a brand new roof put on my beautiful house a few years back. (John) said the embers were bouncing off my house – like it just repelled them. I got so lucky.”
For those wondering my home survived the horror of the LA fires. Miracle. Truly.
Four homes right beside are all burnt to the ground. I can’t even. My new roof buffeted the embers … my gardener and kids spraying my house with water. Then helping all they could.— Kim Coates (@KimFCoates) January 9, 2025
Coates said John refused to leave despite Coates repeatedly urging him to.
Coates praised the heroism of his neighbour and his gardener who happened to be there with a fire hose as well as other first responders.
“There’s nothing the fire department could do in those 12 hours of 100 m/hr winds,” Coates said. “There’s no plane that can drop water. There’s no helicopters. People don’t understand what 100 m/hr winds are until you’re in them.”
Despite the devastation, he praised the community for banding together and looking out for one another.
“There’s so many heroes and it’s so sad. And the whole neighbourhood’s going to be changed now forever,” he said.
As of Friday, at least 10 people have been killed by the wildfires and at least 10,000 structures have been destroyed.
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