Jennifer Garner said she knows dozens who’ve lost their houses to the ongoing wildfires in Southern California ― and even lost a personal friend.
The “Alias” actor has been volunteering with World Central Kitchen founder Chef José Andrés at one of his many pop-up locations across Los Angeles, helping to feed evacuees. Speaking to MSNBC anchor Katy Tur on Friday alongside Andrés, she said that she personally knew someone who had died.
“I did lose a friend, and for our church it’s really tender, so I don’t feel like I should talk about her yet,” she told Tur. “But, yeah. I did lose a friend who did not get out in time.”
“My heart bleeds for my friends,” Garner added. “I mean, I can think of 100 families, and there are 5,000 homes lost. I could just write out a list of 100 friends who lost their homes. I feel almost guilty walking through my house.”
The mother of three went on to describe her initial feelings of helplessness and the thoughts that led her to volunteer: “‘What can I do? How can I help? What can I offer? What do I have to offer with these hands and these walls and the safety that I have?’”
The wildfires have engulfed numerous neighborhoods in the Los Angeles metropolitan area since Tuesday. They’ve burned more than 38,000 acres and destroyed over 12,300 structures, including homes, schools and commercial buildings, per CalFire.
David Swanson/AFP/Getty Images
The ongoing fires have placed some 130,000 residents under evacuation orders and taken the lives of at least 11 people, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Five of them died in the Palisades Fire, which is currently only 11% contained.
“I’ve lived in and around the Palisades for 25 years,” Garner told MSNBC. “So I think all of us, we want to get our hands into working somehow to be helpful. It is not some far away place that you can’t reach.”
Andrés founded the World Central Kitchen in 2010 and has helped distribute meals in war-torn areas and disaster zones ever since, including in Gaza.
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Garner praised Andrés on Friday for being a light in harrowing times: “It is an incredible thing to watch … Chef José come in and just, ‘We’ve got this handled, don’t worry. We’ve got you.’”
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