CNN
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Jimmy Kimmel got emotional Monday night while talking about the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.
“As you know, this has been a very scary, very stressful and very strange week here in Los Angeles, where we work, where we live, where our children go to school,” Kimmel said, his voice shaking during his monologue. “We are back at our studio. We had to evacuate on Wednesday.”
He showed footage showing how close the fire occurred to the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” filming location and noted that many employees working on the series had to evacuate their residences, while some lost their homes due to fires.
“It was terrible,” he said with emotion. “Everyone who lives in this city knows someone – most of us are several – family, friends, co-workers, neighbors whose house burned down and the truth is we don’t even know if It’s over.”
The late-night host said it had been a “sickening, shocking and horrible experience.”
“But it has also been, in many ways, a beautiful experience because, once again, we see our fellow men and women coming together to support each other,” Kimmel said. “People who lost their own homes were volunteering in parking lots to help those who had lost theirs. »
He also criticized President-elect Donald Trump for some of his comments regarding the disaster.
“Tonight, I don’t want to get into all of the vile, irresponsible and stupid things that our so-called future president and his band of bastards have chosen to say during our darkest and most terrifying hour,” Kimmel said. “The fact that they chose to attack our firefighters, who apparently aren’t white enough to be there, and risk their lives for us, is — it’s disgusting, but it’s not surprising. Instead, I want to focus on thanking these men and women, because that’s all we should be doing right now, and we should never stop thanking them.
He named some firefighters from other areas, including “firefighters from all over Maine” to help, and thanked “our police, our National Guard, our first responders, the doctors, the nurses, the EMTs, the pilots working on fires. 12 hour shifts.
“Thank God for all of you,” Kimmel said.
He also thanked local media and said he had “19 people and four dogs” living with him at one point as they sought shelter during the evacuations.