James Woods Helps Save Elderly Neighbor as Pacific Palisades Neighborhood Burns Down from Wildfire

Posted on: January 9, 2025, 09:52h. 

Last updated on: January 9, 2025, 09:59h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More

Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

Celebrated actor and poker aficionado James Woods lost his house in the Los Angeles wildfires this week, but not before he orchestrated the rescue of his 94-year-old neighbor.

In an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown, Woods fought back tears as he recalled Tuesday’s events in his Pacific Palisades neighborhood. It started when Woods saw the enflamed homes on his street which resembled an “inferno… Every house was on fire around us,” he remembered.

Woods had just evacuated and he suddenly thought about the elderly man who lives next door and who suffers from dementia.

Woods Repeatedly Called

Woods decided to make a quick call to the 94-year-old man’s son, who lives in Massachusetts. He asked him if his father was still in the hospital. The son said no and that his father had gone home the previous night. Plus, his father had a new caregiver and no one had her phone number, the son said.

Woods was told he couldn’t go back to check on the elderly neighbor so he called 911 and told them to do a safety check.

But given the chaos in the region, Woods decided he also better contact another neighbor who still was home. He reached that neighbor, who went over to the home of the elderly man.

The door was open, so he shouted out for the man. There was no response.

No one was there, the younger neighbor told Woods. But Woods remained concerned.

Just go behind the pantry,” Woods advised. “There’s a little room. We can see him during the day. He likes to sit there because there’s a garden.”

The younger neighbor followed Wood’s directions.

“He went in, and found him,” Woods told CNN. “He had been left alone.”

He got him out,” Woods added. “And the house burned down about an hour later. He would have been in there alone.”

It turned out that the fire department made the new caregiver leave. They told her they would return for the older man.

Without Woods’ help, the 94-year-old could have died. Instead, he was taken to a local hospital and given treatment.

“God was on his side,” Woods said.

Lost His House

Woods cried as he recalled to CNN how he and his wife spent the last three years renovating their Pacific Palisades house. They moved in three months ago.

Given the views from the property, “it was paradise,” Woods said. But it’s no longer.

One day you’re swimming in the pool. And the next day, it’s all gone,” he said.

Woods has experience with fires. When he was six years old, his family’s house burned down

There are some lessons from the entire experience. “People have got to evacuate when they tell you to evacuate… You’ve got to be out of the way,” Woods said. He added that firefighters, as well as police and other emergency workers do an “amazing job.” They are there to help. So too are neighbors and relatives.

For instance, Woods’ wife, Sara Miller-Woods, was offered a piggy bank from their eight-year-old niece to help the Woods start to rebuild.

Again, he cried while retelling the experience with their niece. He apologized to Brown for the tears.

But Brown told him, “Strength is not measured by whether you hold in crying … Strength is what you are doing now in helping your neighbors and shining a light on the great, amazing work of all those firefighters and emergency crews.”

Poker, Gambling Background

In his spare time, Woods is a regular at poker tournaments in Las Vegas and in Los Angeles, having participated in the World Series of Poker. Among the movies he’s appeared in is “Casino.” He played the character Lester Diamond.