James Woods helps save elderly neighbor during wildfire

Posted: January 9, 2025, 09:52 pm.

Last updated: January 9, 2025, 09:59 pm.

Famous actor and poker fan James Woods lost his home in the Los Angeles wildfires this week, but not before he worked to save his 94-year-old neighbor.

in an interview with cnn Pamela Brown, Woods fought back tears as she recalled Tuesday's events in her Pacific Palisades neighborhood. It started when Woods saw the burned-out houses on his street, which was “hell… every house around us was on fire,” he recalled.

Woods had just left and suddenly remembered an elderly man who lives next door and suffers from dementia.

Woods was called repeatedly

Woods decided to immediately call the son of a 94-year-old man 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 last night. Plus, his father had a new caregiver and no one had his phone number, the son said.

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

But given the chaos in the area, Woods decided he should also contact another neighbor who was still home. He reached the neighbor who went to the old man's house.

The door was open, so he called out to the man. There was no reaction.

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

Just go behind the pantry,'' Woods advised. “There is a small place there. We can see him during the day. He likes to sit there because there is a garden.”

The younger neighbor followed Wood's instructions.

“He went in and found her,” Woods told CNN. “He was left alone.”

They got him out,” Woods said. “And about an hour later the house burned to the ground. He would have been alone there.”

Turns out the fire department fired the new caretaker. They told him that they would come back for the old man.

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

“God was with him,” Woods said.

lost my home

Woods cried as he remembered cnn How he and his wife spent the last three years renovating their Pacific Palisades home. They left three months ago.

Looking at the views from the property, “It was heaven,” Woods said. But now it is not so.

One day you are swimming in the pool. And the next day, it was all over,” he said.

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

There are some lessons to be learned from the whole experience. “When people tell you to move, you've got to move…you've got to move out of the way,” Woods said. He said firefighters, as well as police and other emergency personnel, do an “amazing job.” They are there to help. Neighbors and relatives are also like this.

For example, Woods' wife, Sarah Miller-Woods, was offered a piggy bank from her eight-year-old niece to help Woods rebuild.

Then, he cried while recounting the experience with his niece. He apologized to Brown for his tears.

But Brown told her, “Strength isn't measured by whether or not you keep crying…Strength is what you do right now by helping your neighbors and shining a light on the great, amazing work of all those firefighters and emergency workers. “I'm doing it.”

poker, gambling background

In his spare time, Woods regularly participates in poker tournaments in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, he has participated in the World Series of Poker. Films in which he has acted include “Casino”. He played the character of Lester Diamond.