- Star has been living and playing in LA for two years
- Posted shocking video: ‘Our whole neighbourhood is gone’
Kiwi soccer star Ali Riley has revealed shocking photos and video of her Los Angeles home after it was burnt to the ground in the wildfires that have devastated the city.
Riley, who captains the New Zealand national team and has been playing for LA’s Angel City Football Club since 2022, posted the footage and images to Instagram on Thursday after suffering the horror loss.
‘Our entire neighborhood is gone. We are all safe. Holding onto that with my whole heart while we figure out what to do next,’ she captioned a video taken from a car travelling through an area of the city where only a few houses have been left standing after the blazes.
Riley then posted an aerial image of her burnt-out neighbourhood with an arrow pointing to what was once her house.
‘I keep looking at this to make myself understand that it is real,’ she wrote.
‘I was there Monday night eating dinner. Hanging with Mom and Dad. Watched the sunset. And now it’s gone forever. This rubble was our home.’
New Zealand national skipper Ali Riley (pictured) posted this happy photo just four days ago. Now she’s homeless and devastated due to the Los Angeles wildfires
What used to be Riley’s home is pictured in this shattering photo that shows the incredible scale of the damage the blazes have done to the City of Angels
The 37-year-old also shared video footage that showed barely any homes escaped the infernos that have left the world shocked
She posted the same image to X with the words, ‘This was our home. How is this real. It can’t be real.’
The 37-year-old – who was born in Los Angeles to a Kiwi father – was living in the LA home with her fiance Lucas Nilsson.
The couple are among thousands of residents who have been evacuated due to the blazes, with the death toll of the historic infernos now standing at five as heroic firefighters still battle hellish conditions on the front lines of at least five different fires.
Officials have warned that they expect those figures to climb as they continue to grapple with the infernos.
The fires have ripped large areas of the city apart, turning would-be picturesque neighborhoods into smoldering ruins.
Pushed on by powerful winds, the flames have wiped out more than 1000 structures and scorched famous landmarks that stood in its path.
Riley (pictured playing for New Zealand) was born in Los Angeles
The homes of Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman and Miles Teller are among those destroyed, while dozens of other stars now face an anxious wait alongside their neighbors to learn if anything could be saved.
Mandy Moore, Cary Elwes, Paris Hilton, James Woods, Billy Crystal and his wife Janice all claimed to have seen their homes go up in smoke in the Palisades Fire.
LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley believes the fire started accidentally in a back garden around 10am on Tuesday, local time.
She told reporters the fire is ‘spreading at a speed beyond anything we’ve seen… it’s now unlike anything we have seen in our lifetime.’
Twenty people have also been arrested on suspicion of raiding homes in parts of Southern California during the blazes.
Sheriff of Los Angeles County Robert Luna mentioned in a Wednesday press conference that two people had been arrested for looting.
