As thousands of Malibu residents who fled the Franklin Fire return home, legendary actor Dick Van Dyke is sharing his narrow escape from the wildfire with NBC News. The actor, who turns 99 on Friday, Dec. 13, had to crawl to escape the fire.
“I forgot how old I am, and I realized I was crawling to get out,” Van Dyke told NBC News.
Van Dyke says after attempting to put out the flames in his guest house with a water hose, he became too exhausted to stand.
“I was trying to crawl to the car,” Van Dyke said. “I couldn’t get up. Three neighbors came and carried me out and came back and put out a little fire in the guest house, and saved me. Thank God for them.”
As Van Dyke escaped, so too did thousands of other Malibu residents.
The wildfire grew to more than 4,000 acres on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and at one point, thousands of structures were threatened by the fire.
The cause of the fire, which sparked on Monday, Dec. 9, is still under investigation. Officials say lighter winds on Thursday, Dec. 12 and more moisture helped them make progress in the battle against the fire.
Around 3,700 who previously evacuated were able to return home on Thursday as further progress in containing the fire was made.
