‘I couldn’t get up’: Dick Van Dyke’s neighbors saved him from Malibu fire after he crawled to escape

Dick Van Dyke narrowly escaped the wildfires in Malibu just before his 99th birthday on Friday.

The actor and entertainer told a local California news outlet on “The Today Show” that his neighbors rescued him and that he had difficulty evacuating his home during the Malibu fire this week. The fire burned more than 2,600 acres and led to widespread evacuations and power outages, prompting Van Dyke to flee his home, Variety reported.

Van Dyke said: “(The fire) came from the hill, you could see it. And oh my god. We got out of here. I tried crawling to the car. I was exhausted. I couldn’t make it. “Three neighbors came and carried me out and came back and put out a small fire in the guesthouse and saved me.”

In a Facebook post shared on Thursday, the star said his wife Arlene Silver and their pets had been safely evacuated from their home. But he said one of his pets, a cat named Bobo, went missing, forcing the family to stay home until they were forced to evacuate. Fortunately, Van Dyke’s house and his cat survived the fire.

Van Dyke wrote: “We found Bobo when we got back home this morning.”

“Interest in his disappearance was so great that animal protection authorities were called to help. But luckily he was easy to find and unharmed,” he said.

The entertainer wasn’t the only celebrity to evacuate their homes in California this week. Mira Sorvino and Cher were forced to leave their homes, as were thousands of other residents in the area.