Donal Skehan has opened up about how his family had to flee their LA home following wildfires this year.
The Irish chef is living in the US with his pregnant wife Sofie and their toddler son Noah.
Asked about the extra measures he feels he has to go to for their safety since relocating to the US, he told the Irish Mirror: “A good few of our friends have been evacuated from their homes and the closest it came to us was only a couple of months ago.
“We were driving away for the afternoon and when we came back we could see this huge plume of smoke.
“When we got back we had all the bags packed and the valuables and the keepsakes and that’s what happens.
“We’ve been well warned that it is not a joke and this is what can happen in an instant.
“It was apocalyptic scenes, there was helicopters going over, there was flames, they were dropping water.
“At one point we looked to try and leave and the traffic was so bad just in our tiny neighbourhood streets that you would have had to walk to leave so it wasn’t even possible to get out in a car, it was scary.
“It is [a panic] because you don’t know and that is the hardest part because you can see flames and you don’t know which way it is going and you are watching the news to see. It was pretty scary.”
The cookbook author, who is currently starring on RTE’s Donal’s Super Food In Minutes, added: “People who live further up in the valley from us had their homes decimated.
“It is an incredible thing that you live with out here between that and having the earthquake supply kit it is definitely not like home.”
The 33-year-old Dubliner, whose wife will have their baby any day now, also can’t help but fear for his life when he is in crowded places in the US due to “out of control” gun attacks.
Commenting on the prospect of his kids facing the fear of a deadly rampage if they were to remain in the US, Donal said: “It’s probably one of the worst sides of the US.
“The gun control is out of control and we haven’t been exposed to it because Noah isn’t at school age but it is certainly something we think about.
“You know like you go to the movie theatre and I mean there was a shooting when the Joker came out and even the malls are on high security especially when the new version of that came out.
“It is definitely something you never think of back home but all of a sudden you are sitting in a movie theatre and it does flash in your head and when you are in a crowded place.”
