He thought he'd said goodbye.
"Many memories, but now that was then, this is now," said Academy Award winner Lou Gossett Jr. "I took all my belongings out of there, left my memories behind and the house is gone."
But moving away, and learning a fire destroyed the house where you spent 30 years of your life, are different things.
"I found out on television," Gossett recalled. "It was right down the street from Cindy Landon's house and right down the street from Nick Nolte. Their houses were gone and so was mine. Mine was tinderbox anyway."
Gossett, who stared in "Roots" and "An Officer and a Gentleman," packed up and moved to Atlanta in October after selling his Malibu home in September. He says there were signs all along that it was time to go.
"It was all kinds of signals for me to get out and I hung in there and finally, I gave up," he said. "I listened to the messages, the signals you get all along."
At least 31 people have died state-wide as wildfires in California continue to destroy lives and communities on the West Coast.
More than 100 people have been reported missing but investigators can't get to some neighborhoods because of the fires.
Now, Gossett believes it's time for everyone to pay attention.
"We've gotten hurricanes - the worst in the world. We've gotten fires - the worst in the world. We may be getting some lessons, some signals from the man that I call God, to pay attention to our salvation, otherwise nobody will win," he said.
At 82-year-old, Gossett is still looking to make an impact, working for HBO and reviving his foundation, "Erascism," an effort to end racism of all kinds, and continuing to be a servant to others.
"I listens this time, and as a result, I'm alive," Gossett said. "I would have died, if not from the fire, then from the smoke, so by the grace of God I'm here in Atlanta to start again."
