Billy Crystal lost the Pacific Palisades house where he had lived since 1979. Paris Hilton watched her Malibu beach mansion burn down on live TV.

As we turn a new leaf into a new year, we all get hopeful about the memories and achievements we hope to make. But, as a natural fact of life, sometimes life doesn’t go our way and loss is an inevitable part of that.

More than 30,000 people evacuated their homes as a wildfire ripped through an upscale coastal area of Los Angeles overnight, with Hollywood celebrities among those fleeing by car and on foot as flames engulfed homes and set hillsides ablaze.

Residents abandon cars as neighbourhoods are engulfed in flames; meanwhile, a second bush fire is growing quickly.