Meryl Streep’s Family Shares Star’s Harrowing Escape From LA Wildfire

Meryl Streep’s nephew Abe Streep shared the Hollywood star’s harrowing escape from her home, which was in the line of fire following multiple wildfires in the Los Angeles area earlier this month.

In a New York Magazine article about the devastating fires, Abe wrote that the evacuations came so fast that his 75-year-old aunt almost ended up being trapped inside her home due to a fallen tree.

“Evacuation mandates were sent across the city,” Streep wrote. “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.”

“Determined to make it out, she borrowed wire cutters from a neighbor, cut a car-size hole in the fence she shared with the neighbors on the other side, and drove through their yard to escape,” he added.

 

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Streep’s nephew also spoke with pals Martin Short and actor Haley Joel Osment for the piece, whom he said were forced to evacuate due to the raging fires. The two actors were part of the massive evacuations in the area, unsure of whether their homes would be there when they returned.

Short moved to the southern California area in 1984 and bought a house three years later in the Palisades, the article noted.

“Right away I knew this is where I wanted to live,” the actor told Abe. “You’re five minutes from the ocean or five minutes from the greatest hiking in the mountains imaginable.”

“Beyond that, he said, the Palisades offered a sense of safety: ‘There was only one way in and one way out.'”

Five years ago, Osment moved to an area near Eaton Canyon. The 36-year-old actor said he had just returned home from shooting a film when he spotted the rising black smoke coming from the canyon, the piece noted.

“He went for a walk in his yard and looked back at his house, a 1951 post-and-beam structure with large glass windows and skylights,” Streep’s nephew wrote. “Bears sometimes rambled through the yard, and he often heard owls at night; it felt like he lived in the forest.”

“After he let his dogs out into the yard, he saw a large plume of black smoke and a glow coming from the canyon,” he added.” So he loaded up his dogs, passport, and family photos and went to his parents’ house, which was nearby.”

Short’s home miraculously managed to survive the blaze. However, Osment wasn’t so lucky and he lost his home, as did his parents, and so many others in southern California, the outlet noted.

Related: LA Reporter’s Aerial Video Shows Near-Entire Town Destroyed In SoCal Fires