- Star has been living and playing in LA for two years
- Shocking video posted: ‘Our entire neighborhood is gone’
Kiwi football star Ali Riley has revealed shocking photos and videos of her Los Angeles home after it was burned to the ground in the bushfires that devastated the city.
Riley, who captains the New Zealand national team and has played for LA’s Angel City Football Club since 2022, posted the images to Instagram on Thursday after suffering the horror loss.
‘Our entire neighborhood is gone. We are all safe. That’s what I hold on to with all my heart as we figure out what to do next,” she captioned a video taken from a car driving through a part of the city where only a few houses remained standing after the fires.
Riley then posted an aerial photo of her burned-out neighborhood with an arrow pointing to what was once her home.
“I keep watching it to make myself understand that it is real,” she wrote.
“I was eating there on Monday night. Hanging up with mom and dad. I watched the sunset. And now it’s gone forever. This rubble was our home.”
New Zealand national skipper Ali Riley (pictured) posted this cheerful photo just four days ago. Now she is homeless and devastated by the Los Angeles wildfires
What used to be Riley’s home is pictured in this shocking photo that shows the incredible extent of the damage the fires have caused to the City of Angels
The 37-year-old also shared video footage showing that hardly any houses escaped the infernos that left the world shaken.
She posted the same image on X with the words: ‘This was our house. How is this real? It can’t be real.’
The 37-year-old – born in Los Angeles to a Kiwi father – lived in the LA home with her fiancé Lucas Nilsson.
The couple are among the thousands of residents who have been evacuated due to the firesThe death toll from the historic infernos now stands at five, as heroic firefighters continue to battle in hellish conditions on the front lines of at least five different fires.
Officials have warned they expect these numbers to rise as they continue to grapple with the infernos.
The fires have torn apart large parts of the city, turning so-called picturesque neighborhoods into smoldering ruins.
Driven by powerful winds, the flames swept away more than 1,000 structures and scorched famous landmarks in their 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 have to wait anxiously alongside their neighbors to hear if anything can 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 during the Palisades Fire.
LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley believes the fire started accidentally in a backyard around 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday.
She told reporters that the fire is “spreading at a rate beyond anything we’ve ever seen… it’s now unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”
Twenty people have also been arrested on suspicion of robbing homes in parts of Southern California during the fires.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference Wednesday that two people had been arrested for looting.