Actress Jane Seymour flees Californian wildfires ‘just in time’
British actress Jane Seymour has said she left her home “just in time” with flames “right up to my house” as fast-moving wildfires ripped through Malibu, California.
The 73-year-old star said she left with just the clothes she was wearing and has been sleeping elsewhere since the blaze started on Monday evening.
Seymour said her “whole house smells of smoke” when she returned home three days later.
Speaking on the red carpet of the British American Business Council (BABC) annual Christmas luncheon, she said: “I just literally had jeans and a sweater, which I’ve been wearing for four days and sleeping at different people’s houses.
“On Monday night, at 10.50pm, we got a call from my partner, John Zambetti’s son Johnny, who was in Serra Retreat.
“[He] saw a glow behind the curtains, opened the windows, saw 10ft flames, and called us immediately and said, ‘Get out. Get out’.
“We all got out just in time because of that.”
Thousands of people in the upmarket city have been forced to evacuate, with fellow stars including Dick Van Dyke and Cher also fleeing the area.
The latest update from the City of Malibu confirmed more than 4,000 acres burned during the wind-driven wildfire named the Franklin Fire by authorities, with 14 buildings destroyed and 13 damaged.
Honoured with the BABC LA icon award at the Los Angeles event, Seymour said: “This is a huge honour, and after the week that we’ve had with the fires coming right up to my house, I couldn’t even conceive of putting clothes on, let alone being able to come and talk to anyone about anything.”
On the red carpet, Seymour said the blaze “did not attack the house” because “the fire trucks just came right away, and we got saved”.
“The whole house smells of smoke, but we’re just so grateful,” she said.
“The job the fire brigade did is beyond belief. If you are where I live, and you look up the hill… every house the fire came right up to one inch of the dwelling.
“It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that so few structures were burned.”
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The two-time Golden Globe-winning actress is best known for playing a Bond Girl in 1973’s Live And Let Die, and has since described the Bond franchise as “probably the most important British export you can be a part of”.
Her later part as Michaela Quinn in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman – helped her seal her Hollywood fame.
Seymour said: “I don’t know how that works, because usually you turn 40 and you’re a woman and you’re too old. But when I was 40, I got a little thing called Dr Quinn, and that really saved my life – I’ve been very fortunate,” she said.
She added that she feels “incredibly blessed” to be working into her 70s.