Meryl Streep Was Forced to a Cut Hole in Fence to Evacuate as Wildfires Raged in LA Earlier This Month: Details

Meryl Streep’s nephew shares how the actress narrowly escaped the LA wildfires on January 8, cutting a hole in her fence to drive through after a tree blocked her only exit.

Written by Seema Sinha , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Jan 29, 2025 | 04:49 PM IST | 14.7K

Meryl Streep (Getty Images)

Meryl Streep’s nephew is giving an account of how the celebrated actress escaped the wildfires in LA earlier this month.

Streep, 75, was reportedly forced to cut a large enough hole in her fence to drive a car through while evacuating her residence on January 8, one day after multiple wildfires began raging throughout Los Angeles.

“Evacuation mandates were sent across the city. My aunt Meryl Streep received an order to evacuate on January 8, but when she tried to leave, she discovered that a large tree had fallen over in her driveway, blocking her only exit,” Streep’s nephew, Abe Streep, wrote in a New York Magazine article detailing the devastating fires’ destruction. “Determined to make it out, she borrowed wire cutters from a neighbor, cut a car-sized hole in the fence she shared with the neighbors on the other side, and drove through their yard to escape.”

Meryl’s nephew, Abe, also spoke with her longtime friend and Only Murders in the Building costar Martin Short, as well as actor Haley Joel Osment, as he detailed the disastrous fires that wreaked havoc in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities earlier this month, displacing tens of thousands of residents.

Short, 74, lives in the former neighborhood. He told Abe that he took family photo albums with him when one of his two sons told him to evacuate after the fires began on January 7. It took him more than an hour to exit the high-risk zone as some people abandoned their vehicles and walked away from danger.

Osment, meanwhile, said he had recently returned from filming a new movie when the Eaton fire began near his home in Altadena. The actor said he lost 500 records he owned and a piano his parents had gifted him for his 18th birthday. Osment also told New York Magazine that his father lost his home too in the tragedy.

Authorities said on Monday, January 28, that the death toll from the fires had risen to 29 in recent days. Short additionally told the publication that though his home had survived the blaze in Pacific Palisades, one of his sons lost his nearby home. Osment added that he intends to rebuild his home in Altadena.