Good Morning Britain’s Hollywood reporter Ross King has told of the time when his house was almost surrounded by flames during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires
Scottish broadcaster Ross King, best known for his live reports from Hollywood for ITV shows such as Lorraine and Good Morning Britain, has told of the “horrendous” moment he thought his Los Angeles home was about to go up in smoke.
Speaking on the Sliding Doors podcast ahead of his appearance on Strictly Come Dancing, Ross explained that he lives in the Hollywood Hills, not far from the iconic Hollywood sign.
During the devastating wildfire that had caused at least 30 deaths, he was still covering showbiz stories for ITV. But meanwhile, the wildfires were drawing ever closer.
“It was getting to a point where in the area, they were saying get ready to evacuate… make sure the car is packed. You’re possibly going to have to go. I was here with my girlfriend,” he added, “we were just watching the TV and seeing the horrendous scenes.”
Ross added that his girlfriend Bridget was anxious to leave before the fire got even closer and roads became blocked with traffic.
“So,” Ross added, “we were sitting thinking, okay, what do we do? And we were still watching it on TV. And then the bizarre thing was that, because this was late at night, I was actually… I’ve got a TV studio in the house.
“So I was running down doing live reports for Lorraine and Good Morning Britain, and then coming back up and then looking and going, ‘where are the fires now?’
“And it was just incredible that we thought, it’s getting really close thinking, ‘we need to go.’ And then you look around the house and you think, you can’t take, obviously, very much.”
Ross said that he was just getting ready to say goodbye his Hollywood home, possibly for the last time, before a “magical” event occurred. He recalled: “Then you look around the house and you think, ‘OK, I’m going to leave the house. This might be the last time that I ever see this house’.”
But then a firefighting helicopter saved Ross’s house – and possibly his life.
He shared: “A helicopter came in, one of the water drop helicopters, and just made the most magnificent swoop and dropped water… it was just a magical moment that put out such a huge part of the fire.”
Ross added: “We both looked at each other and said, ‘that has just absolutely saved us’. And it saved so many properties, possibly saved so many lives as well. It was just that moment where you thought, oh my goodness me, how life could have been very different, it changed completely.”
He says that while he suffered with significant “Survivor’s Guilt”, admitting “I certainly had that” after seeing how much some of his neighbours had lost in the wildfires, he also realised how lucky he had been.
The Strictly star emotionally divulged: “One day, you’re watching the TV and you’re watching these incredibly sad stories, people that have lost, you know, lives, lost people, lost possessions, lost homes, lost work, lost jobs, everything.
“It just suddenly bubbled up inside me. And I realised that again, I was thinking how lucky I am.”