Sarah Michelle Gellar and different stars activate LA mayor and Gavin Newsom over hearth response

Sarah Michelle Gellar has expressed frustration with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over the city’s response to this week’s devastating wildfires.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer star, 47, tagged the official social media accounts of Bass and the City of Los Angeles as she complained in a post on her Instagram Stories: “City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping.”

Gellar is just one of many celebrities to have been forced to evacuate by a wave of catastrophic fires sweeping across southern California.

Several have blamed local government for a lack of preparedness. Salvador actor James Woods, who lost his home in the Palisades, wrote on X that the devastation caused by the fire wasn’t due to “climate change” but because of “liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass.”

“One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs,” wrote Woods.

TV fitness expert Jillian Michaels was also among those criticizing a lack of local leadership.

On X, Michaels wrote of Bass’s recent trip to Africa: “The mayor is apparently in Ghana. The fire departments budget was apparently cut by 17 mil. And someone made the decision to not refill some of the reservoirs – now some fire hydrants are dry. Leadership in California is beyond negligent. This is completely unacceptable.”

In a further post The Biggest Loser star continued: “California governor @GavinNewsom issues a press release admitting they knew about the insane fire risk this past Sunday because he was propositioning fire engines. And yet, he just called in the national guard a few hours ago.

“Pacific Palisades ran out of water at 3am. I’m so so upset for the people of California. My family who stayed. My lifelong friends who live there. Our brave firefighters. This is not a partisan issue it’s pure incompetence and misprioritization.”

The fires, which have claimed five lives and forced more than 70,000 people to flee their homes, continue to rage across Los Angeles County, fuelled by high winds.

The Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires erupted on Tuesday while two more — the Tyler and Woodley fires — ignited nearby on Wednesday. A state of emergency has been declared in the city.

Stars including Billy Crystal, Anthony Hopkins and Eugene Levy have lost their homes.

The wildfires, which now span more than 27,000 acres, are among the most destructive in Los Angeles’s history.