The Southern California coastline continued to burn Thursday as powerful fires ravaged some of the nation’s most recognizable neighborhoods.
As firefighters worked overnight to quell the fast-moving flames, many celebrities took to social media to express gratitude for the first responders, while a few used the moment to share discontent over the state’s leadership and handling of the crisis.
“Shazam!” star Zachary Levi appeared on Fox News Wednesday to voice frustration with California politicians for their handling of this fire and others in the past.
Actor Zachary Levi walks the red carpet for Austin Film Society’s Toast to Texas Film at Troublemaker Studios on May 16, 2024.
“This is just incredible mismanagement, incredibly poor leadership, I would go so far as to say that it’s criminally negligent,” said Levi, who spoke to Fox from Austin, Texas.
From the Hollywood Hills to Malibu, flames engulfed the lower half of the state, propelled by powerful winds that soothed only mildly Wednesday night.
At least five fires were active in Los Angeles County Thursday, Cal Fire reported, though the most devastating remain the Pacific Palisades and Eaton blazes with 0% containment. The regions consumed by these fires happen to be home to many A-listers who live and work in the country’s entertainment capital.
A person is pictured as a home burns during the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California.
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Actor James Woods took to X Wednesday night to express discontent at Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, posting a screenshotted headline from the New York Post claiming Bass slashed fire department funding before the blaze.
“The most important task ahead is not to be bitter, but…” he wrote. In a later post he called both Bass and Gavin Newsom “liberal idiots.” Newsom is the governor of California.
“One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs,” he wrote of the pair.
Actress and producer Sara Foster echoed that sentiment in a post of her own, writing Wednesday: “We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared.”
Foster demanded both Bass and Newsom resign, writing “Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.”
Budget summaries for the city show that the fire department’s allotment did decrease from around $837 million in 2023-24 to $819.5 million in 2024-25. However, a pie chart of total spending indicates the fire department’s real estate in the overall budget remained around 15% year over year.
Actor James Woods poses at the premiere of “Bleed for This” in Beverly Hills, California U.S., November 2, 2016. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
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USA TODAY has reached out to Bass’ office for comment.
Tina Knowles, mother to music icon Beyoncé, defended Bass on Instagram Thursday, reposting a Reel from creator @reeciecolbert that argued conservative media’s blaming of Bass was racial and that the fire’s magnitude was a direct result of climate change. “This mayor has always worked diligently for the he betterment of Los Angeles and all communities. Another opportunity to attack a black woman in power,” Knowles wrote alongside the post. “Don’t believe the hype!”
As for the water reservoirs claim, the tanks in Pacific Palisades were indeed without water midway through the blaze, but the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power denied claims that they were not at capacity before the start of the fire.
In a press conference Wednesday departmental officials said the tanks in the area were all the way full at around 1 million gallons in each of the three at the start of the blaze, but those supplies ran out by Wednesday morning.
“We had a tremendous demand on our system… we pushed the system to the extreme,” said Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the LA Department of Water and Power. “If there’s a message to take away from me today, it’s ‘I need our customers to really conserve water.'”
California has suffered a drought for many years, with government officials often urging residents to conserve water by swapping grass lawns for dought-friendly plants and limiting shower time.
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“He clearly knows that the biggest problem that we suffer in California are these fires and by the way the mudslides that follow,” Levi said, taking aim at Newsom and accusing the governor of doing “not just nothing, but worse than nothing.”
Actor Zachary Levi is taking aim at California Gov. Gavin Newsom and accusing the him of doing “not just nothing, but worse than nothing” amid the blazing Los Angeles wildfires.
Also referencing the budget, and claiming there are ways to save water that are not being employed, Levi seemed to allege that Newsom’s negligence might be intentional. He also blasted the leadership for allowing many homes in California to be denied fire insurance.
“They must be held responsible,” he told host Jesse Watters, “this is not good leadership.”
Insurers are private, meaning the government has only so much control over their policies. At the end of 2024, though, the state’s insurance commissioner enacted a measure aimed at expanding insurance coverage in wildfire-afflicted areas after many companies scaled back in the wake of other devastating blazes.
Allstate, which had suspended all new policies in the state in 2022, signaled interest in returning to the state after the changes, The New York Times reports.
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In 2024, State Farm, the largest insurer in the state, cut policies in the Santa Monica Mountains resulting in 70% of customers in Pacific Palisades, about 1,600 homeowners, losing coverage, the Times reports.
The California FAIR plan, a state-run alternative used by many abandoned by larger insurers, has filled the gap in some particularly fire-prone neighborhoods.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA fires push Zachary Levi to take aim at California leaders
