Meryl Streep cut a car-sized hole in her garden fence to escape LA fires

The actor Meryl Streep made a dramatic escape from the fires which killed 28 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures across Los Angeles earlier this month, her nephew has reported.

In an article for New York magazine, Abe Streep cited his aunt as an exemplar of the determination and resilience exhibited by so many LA residents.

The Oscar-winning actor, he wrote, received an order to evacuate on 8 January, the day after the onset of the Palisades and Eaton fires, but on attempting to leave “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 neighbour, cut a car-size hole in the fence she shared with the neighbours on the other side, and drove through their yard to escape.”

Streep owns a home in Pasadena, close to the Eaton fire. It is not thought that the house burnt down.

Elsewhere in the article, Abe Streep spoke to his aunt’s Only Murders in the Building co-star, Martin Short, who also encountered difficulties escaping the house in the Palisades he bought in 1984.

Short reported that a drive to safety that would have normally taken five minutes took more than an hour, such was the gridlock and panic. Short said: “I will definitely stay in my home,” but reported that one of his sons lost his house.

Among the celebrities whose homes were destroyed in the fires are Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton and Eugene Levy.