Former Arsenal forward Carlos Vela has become the latest star to suffer at the hands of the devastating wildfires ripping through Los Angeles.
Vela’s wife revealed on Thursday that their $4million (£3.3m) 5,121-square-foot Malibu home burned down in flames that have wrecked havoc in the affluent LA suburb of Palisades.
On the morning of January 7, severe droughts and winds of up to 100 miles per hour whipped up wildfires. Since then, the infernos have killed at least ten people, destroyed thousands of homes, and forced over 130,000 residents to evacuate.
‘Our beautiful Malibu home burned down yesterday… We are still in shock with everything that’s happening,’ Saioa Canibano wrote on Instagram.
‘It’s very sad and scary to see everything burning. To all the messages of concern that are being sent to us, we are safe. Sending much love to all those affected and hopefully they will soon manage to put out the fire.’
Vela, who has been a star of MLS side LA FC since his arrival in 2018, showed off the families lavish home in a Christmas Instagram post last month.
Carlos Vela’s wife has revealed that their family home burned down in the devastating LA wildfires
The Mexican footballer showed off his luxurious home in an Instagram post before Christmas
The $4million (£3.3m) 5,121-square-foot property boasted five bedroom, a chef’s kitchen and a swimming pool
The luxurious abode reportedly boasted five bedrooms, more than five bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen fit with a breakfast bar and center island, as well as a dining room, living room, main room, cinema room, wine cellar and a guest suite.
Additionally, the home reportedly included a spa, multimedia room and three suites with bathrooms and a laundry room.
The property sat on land of almost 6,500-square-feet and included a swimming pool.
Vela and his family moved to LA ahead of his first season with the team in 2018. The Mexican proved to be a bit hit in the country and won the 2019 MLS MVP, an MLS Cup trophy and two Supporters’ Shields titles.
The 32-year-old left the club after the 2023 season before rejoining them in late 2024 for the rest of their campaign. Both he and the side remain in discussions over his future.
A number of famous California residents have seen their homes go up in flames during the carnage. The homes of Paris Hilton, Anthony Hopkins, Tina Knowles, John Goodman, Candy Spelling, Milo Ventimiglia, and Miles Teller are among those destroyed, while dozens of other stars now face an anxious wait alongside their neighbors to learn if anything could be saved.
On Thursday, satellite images showed how the fires spread to cover more than 27,000 acres in just three days.
As the blaze erupted on Tuesday, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite spotted the first plumes of smoke stretching out over the Pacific Ocean.
In images taken only hours later, NASA’s Aqua satellite showed how the blaze had already spread into the winding streets of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood.
And, in timelapse footage captured by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) you can see how powerful Santa Ana winds drove the infernos to spread rapidly through the city.
In a post on X, CIRA said: ‘The Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire continue their rapid growth near Los Angeles as both have scorched over 10,000 acres.’
After the Palisades Fire burst into life on Tuesday morning, the first satellite images were captured by 10:45 local time.
The orbiting camera clearly shows how the fire began as a forest fire in a wooded region just west of Santa Monica.
By the time NASA captured an image of the blaze later that day the fire had spread out of control, going on to scorch more than 11,000 hectares by the afternoon of January 8.
Satellite images also show how multiple fires quickly erupted across the city.
A timelapse shared by CIRA shows the glow of a second wildfire appearing to the North in the Eaton neighbourhood.
This image uses shortwave infrared imaging to show the number of burning buildings in the Altadena region of Los Angeles. Each red glowing square is an individual burning house. It is estimated that the fire has destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the neighbourhood
In the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, the Eaton Fire claimed another 10,600 acres, another 1,000 structures, and killed at least five people, officials said.
Two new blazes erupted overnight in the Hollywood Hills and Studio City, causing a mandatory evacuation order to be issued in the celebrity hub.
The National Guard has been deployed and could send in military personnel to assist, amid revelations that firefighters are ‘triaging’ homes and neighbourhoods.
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Hollywood stars whose homes have burned to the ground as devastating LA wildfires destroy California
As of 20:45 local time (04:00 GMT) Friday morning, there are five fires actively burning in the city with zero per cent contained.
Firefighters have managed to completely contain two smaller fires while an additional fire in the Acton area has now been partly contained.
The incredible speed with which the fires can spread in these timelapse videos is due to a dangerous mixture of low rainfall and high winds.
The Santa Ana winds are a yearly period of high wind speeds which occur between October and January as a pressure gradient builds between the Great Basin to the east and the cooler Pacific to the west.
These winds drive dry, gusty wind down the side of inland mountain ranges, through the narrow canyons and out to the sea across Los Angeles.
This year the Santa Ana winds have blown at around 40 miles per hour (65 kmph) with gusts reaching 100 miles per hour (160kmph) in some areas.
These winds have whipped the fires up and driven them to spread far faster than they normally would.
Although these winds are not unusual, matters are made worse by the fact that LA is currently experiencing its driest start to the year since records began in 1944.
