'Gossip Girl' Actress Samantha Rose Baldwin Ran Through Palisades Fire to Save Her Cat
Samantha Rose Baldwin saved her beloved cat amid the wildfires blazing throughout Southern California.
In a new interview, the 26-year-old actress, who played Shelby Wright on the Gossip Girl reboot series, detailed the “terrifying” experience of running through the Palisades fire to save her 10-year-old cat named Kitty.
Keep reading to find out more…“It was an immediate spring into action and an amalgamation of questions racing through my head – can I get my cat out? Is my dad safe and getting ready to leave?” Samantha recalled to The Daily Mail.
While her father was helping kids evacuate at a nearby elementary school, where he worked as a security guard, before it ultimately burned down, Samantha rushed home to save her cat.
It would have taken Samantha more than two hours to get to her apartment because of bumper-to-bumper traffic, so instead, she “decided to park my car and run,” adding, “I ran for about 15 minutes on Sunset Boulevard until I made it home.”
Samantha went on to say it “took 20 minutes for me to find her” once she got inside her apartment, since her cat “had gone into her best hiding spot which was inside the couch. I grabbed her and wrapped her up in a blanket and put her inside my cat carrier backpack.”
“Once we got outside, the fire had gotten closer to us and the path going back to my car was now no longer an option,” Samantha continued. “I thought to myself, ‘Where I am suppose to go?’ The fire was all around us. The terrifying part was when a big gust of wind and smoke came in so fast that you couldn’t see anything.”
She added, “Here I was stuck between the fire and the ocean, so it only made sense to get to the water. I was genuinely running for my life with my cat strapped to my back and a suitcase rolling behind me.
“I had to dart in and out of the cars and dodge flaming branches and palm leaves falling to the ground all around me like a minefield. It felt like something I would see or do in an action movie, not my real life,” Samantha explained. “While I was running towards the ocean, I called my Mom and told her I loved her. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to make it.”
After the harrowing experience, Samantha reunited with her father and is now staying with a friend in North Hollywood.
“My body aches. I feel like I got hit by a bus and run over three times. I had so much ash on my face yesterday that I looked like I just walked out of Mad Max,” Samantha said. “My chest hurts and my throat is a bit scratchy, but overall I am so thankful to be alive, and that my Dad and cat are safe.”
Another actress also shared her horrifying experience as she and her family evacuated amid the fires.