“Would have grabbed so much more”

“Would have grabbed so much more”

Cameron Mathison opens up about his massive loss from the LA fires.

The All my children alum, 55, spoke with Entertainment tonight on Wednesday, Jan. 9, and explained how he and his family escaped the Eaton fire that burned down their home earlier this week. When they were forced to evacuate, he said he “didn’t really believe” they would lose everything, so he only took passports, birth certificates and a few photo albums with him.

“Unfortunately I left a few precious copies where the children were very, very young and a film that can’t be replaced,” he said, adding: “If I really thought the house would fall down , I would have grabbed so much more.” ”

(L-R) Cameron Mathison, Lucas Mathison and Leila Mathison.

Cameron Mathison/Instagram


Just hours earlier, he was at dinner when his ex-wife Vanessa called him and told him they had to evacuate. They went to an apartment they owned near Pasadena, and the next morning they learned their home hadn’t made it.

“(Vanessa) woke me up at 5 a.m. because she had been up most of the night watching the news and hearing that the street across our street…the reporters on TV were literally on our block,” Cameron recalled : “We were sitting on the couch watching the news and realized that the houses around our house had burned down, but I couldn’t see our house.”

“I was just sitting there, it was probably 6 a.m., and I had to get up there,” he continued, saying he bought a mask and goggles before heading into his neighborhood. “It looked like a war zone.”

Although he had some “hope” that their house would be okay, he quickly realized that this was not the case.

“It was all gone,” he revealed. “It was really, really decimated. There’s nothing left. Less than nothing. Everything just burned to ashes.”

(L-R) Cameron Mathison; his California home.

Presley Ann/Shutterstock; Cameron Mathison/Instagram


The actor later said Good morning America On Jan. 9, he said he was grateful to have gotten something out of the house, but knowing there was nothing left of it was hard to cope with.

“I was awake all night. I can’t sleep. I lost my home and everything I own,” he said. “I still have this hoodie, a pair of pants and two pairs of sneakers left. This is it.”

“Every few minutes we think about things that were in there and are irreplaceable, but there are a lot of things that are replaceable,” he added.

He had told it AND that the house was a place his daughter Lelia, 18, and son Lucas, 21, always thought they could return to, noting it was built specifically for them.

“We spent over a decade designing every detail of this house,” he explained through tears. “It was something the kids loved, it was the place the kids wanted to raise their kids. I keep coming back to the fact that we’re all safe. “It’s so devastating and when you’re in so much shock it’s honestly hard to think straight.”

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Mathison shared images of the charred remains of the home on his Instagram on Wednesday, January 8, and gave a tour of the site as he returned for the first time since his evacuation.

“We are safe. But this is what’s left of our beautiful home,” he wrote alongside the video. “Our home where our children grew up and where they hoped to one day raise their own.”

“Thank you to everyone who reached out and reached out,” he continued. “I can’t respond to everyone so I wanted to give an update here. Sending so many prayers to everyone affected by these fires,” he concluded the caption, followed by a prayer hands emoji.

Several celebrities and over 80,000 displaced residents have been affected by the five fires currently burning in Los Angeles. In addition to the Mathison family, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, Anna Faris, Ricki Lake, Cary Elwes, and Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag also confirmed that their homes were destroyed.

Click here to learn more about how you can help victims of the LA fires.

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