Celebrity
Milo Ventimiglia’s House Burned Down In The L.A. Fires
The actor is expecting his first child with wife Jarah Mariano.
As fires continue to burn across Los Angeles County, several stars have shared their stories of evacuating their homes and, in some cases, losing them altogether.
On Jan. 9, Milo Ventimiglia revealed that his Malibu home was one of the thousands of structures destroyed in the deadly blaze. He returned to the site with CBS News, sharing his real-time reaction to discovering the devastation.
“Aw, man. Toast,” he said while driving through his neighborhood.
Though the This Is Us alum knew ahead of time that his house did not withstand the fire, he said it was “heavy” to see the wreckage in person. “Man, it hits you so quick,” he said as his voice broke. “You start thinking about all the memories in different parts of the house and whatnot, and then you see your neighbors’ houses ... and your heart just breaks.”
“We Kind Of Accepted The Loss”
Ventimiglia and his wife, Jarah Mariano are expecting their first child together. They evacuated on Jan. 7 and watched the fire on security footage, CBS notes. “I think there’s a kind of shock moment where you go, Oh, this is real, and this is happening,” Ventimiglia recalled. “And then, at a certain point, we just turned it off. It’s like, what good is it to continue watching? We kind of accepted the loss.”
The actor also reflected on the room he and Mariano were planning for their soon-to-arrive little one. They had the “whole thing set up,” he said. However, he expressed gratitude that his family is OK.
“We got good friends, and we got good people we’re working with, and we’ll make do. We’ll make do,” he said. “Wife and baby and dog are most important.”
A This Is Us Connection
CBS News noted that just as Ventimiglia became an advocate for fire safety after his character, Jack, died in one in This Is Us, this experience motivated him to do the same for wildfire safety, specifically.
Incidentally, Ventimiglia’s This Is Us co-star Mandy Moore has shared her experience fleeing the fires in her community of Altadena. After posting a harrowing video of her family driving on smoke-filled roads to evacuate, Moore shared a positive update on Jan. 9.
“Miraculously, the main part of our house is still standing. For now. It’s not livable but mostly intact,” she wrote, adding that her garage, back house, and the studio shared by Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith (her husband and brother-in-law, respectively) did not make it through the fire.
Moore acknowledged that even with this damage, she’s fortunate because the other homes on her street are no longer standing. “Everyone we know lost everything,” she said.
Noting that she now has a sense of “survivors guilt,” Moore ended her message by looking ahead. “We love this community and will do everything we can to help rebuild and support.”
