Dick Van Dyke credits neighbors with saving his life and home during Malibu fire
Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke and his family are alive and well thanks to some quick-thinking neighbors, who sprang into action to offer assistance as the Franklin Fire barreled toward his Malibu home.
The 98-year-old actor and comedian was one of a handful of A-list celebrities, including Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, impacted by the wind-fueled brush fire, that has scorched more than 4,000 acres since it began late Monday night. Firefighters are still working around the clock to extinguish the blaze, which left thousands displaced.
Van Dyke, who has already lived through four wildfires, "wasn't ready" when he spotted the flames coming over the hill towards his home, he shared in a Thursday interview with NBC News.
"This time I messed up ... I have a fire hose that hooks up to my pool, and shoots like a 70-foot stream of water. Well, I wasn’t ready. I went out. It was snarled, and I’m out there laying on the ground trying to undo this fire hose, and the fire’s coming over the hill," he told NBC News. "What I did was exhaust myself. I forgot how old I am, and I realized I was crawling to get out."
Van Dyke was lucky, telling NBC News, that if it hadn't been for three neighbors who came to help him, he's not sure he or his house would have made it. The only damage to Van Dyke's estate, per NBC News, was to his guest house.
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"I was trying to crawl to the car," Van Dyke said in the interview. "I had exhausted myself. I couldn't get up. And three neighbors came and carried me out and came back and put out a little fire in the guest house and saved me."
Dick Van Dyke back in Malibu home days after initial evacuation
Van Dyke and his wife Arlene wrote in a Facebook post early Tuesday morning that they had "safely evacuated." They stayed in a local hotel for the night, without their escaped cat Bobo, who had escaped as they were leaving.
"We’re praying he’ll be ok and that our community in Serra Retreat will survive these terrible fires," he wrote.
The Van Dyke family was home and had located Bobo by Wednesday, they said in another Facebook update that they were home and Animal Control had easily found the cat unharmed.
The effort made by firefighters to extinguish the blaze is "incredible," Van Dyke told NBC News.
“They had me out of here and pouring water on my house instantly, and that fire just overwhelmed them," Van Dyke said. "They must be exhausted, those guys, but they deserve every accolade they can get."
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