A year has passed since a series of apocalyptic wildfires tore through Southern California, reducing the homes of numerous A-list celebrities to smouldering rubble. The blazes, which raged between 7th and 31st January 2025, claimed 31 lives, forced over 200,000 people to evacuate, and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
Scars on the Landscape: The Slow Path to Recovery
Cleanup efforts from the catastrophic fires stretched on for nearly seven months. Now, one year later, thousands of destroyed properties are under reconstruction or in the planning stages. City and county officials in Los Angeles have issued more than 2,600 building permits to facilitate the rebuild. However, aerial and ground-level photographs taken in early January 2026 reveal that for many high-profile victims, the scars remain vividly clear, with empty lots and foundations standing as stark reminders of the devastation.
Among the most notable victims were Paris Hilton, Anna Faris, Eugene Levy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Goodman, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Their multi-million dollar properties in affluent areas like Malibu and Pacific Palisades were consumed by the flames. The fires raged for more than three weeks, fuelled by dry conditions, leaving a trail of destruction that impacted communities and celebrities alike.
From Hilton's Waterfront Retreat to Hopkins' Fresh Start
Paris Hilton's $8.4 million Malibu waterfront home was "reduced to a pile of burning rubble." The socialite and businesswoman recounted watching her property burn on live television with her family. "This home was where we built so many precious memories," Hilton said at the time, noting it was where her son took his first steps. Recent images show the site remains in ruins, with rubble scattered and foundation walls exposed, though much debris has been cleared. Hilton has focused her public comments on community recovery, fostering a dog for a displaced family and supporting female entrepreneurs through a grant programme, rather than on her own significant loss.
Sir Anthony Hopkins, 88, lost a $6 million Pacific Palisades home he had purchased in 2021 as a fresh start after selling his long-time Malibu residence. Tragically, this was not the first fire to impact the Oscar-winner; his London home was destroyed in a blaze in 2000, and his neighbour's property burned in the 2018 Woolsey fire. Current photos show nothing more than the fire-damaged foundation of his California property remains.
Empty Plots and Cleared Foundations: The Current State
For other stars, the lots where their homes once stood now sit vacant. Anna Faris's 4,000-square-foot Pacific Palisades mansion, bought for almost $5 million in 2019, is now an empty, cleared plot. Similarly, the $15 million Mediterranean-style home owned by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her husband Brad Hall since the early 1990s, where they raised their two sons, is now a well-tended but empty piece of land. The house next door miraculously survived.
Eugene Levy's $3.9 million Pacific Palisades home, a more modest 2,081-square-foot property he purchased in 2006, is also a fenced-off empty lot with some green growth. The Schitt's Creek star, who is the neighbourhood's honorary mayor, was caught in gridlock traffic while trying to evacuate ahead of the flames.
John Goodman's 5,250-square-foot, five-bedroom home, bought for $4.6 million in 2008, was completely levelled. Latest images show only the foundation remains, enclosed by a construction fence. The actor primarily resides in New Orleans.
In a poignant loss of Hollywood history, the Malibu home once shared by the late Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett also burned down. Their daughter, Tatum O'Neal, confirmed the destruction, calling it "the saddest ever." The three-bedroom beach property, valued at over $3 million, is now an empty plot overlooking the Pacific.
The journey to rebuild these communities and the cherished homes within them continues, a testament to both the ferocity of nature and the enduring effort to recover from disaster.
