Breaking: LA wildfires came within just 15 minutes of Meghan Markle’s childhood home…..Read More

At the height of the catastrophic Palisades Fire, people living in Meghan Markle’s old neighbourhood were put under curfew and evacuation warning as the blaze threatened their homes

The Duchess of Sussex has been at the forefront of the celebrity response to the LA wildfires that claimed at least 29 lives and left thousands homeless.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry opened their home in Montecito to evacuees and toured some of the hardest-hit areas, talking to victims and donating food, clothes, toys and other essentials.

One insider told In Touch Weekly: “They could have easily left town, but they actually drove two hours towards the fire to help out at the World Central Kitchen. They served meals to people that have been evacuated, they spoke with people and tried to offer some solace.”

Both Harry and Meghan do a great deal of charity work, but on this occasion the disaster was much closer to home for the Duchess… quite literally, in fact. The Express can reveal that her first childhood home was just two kilometres from the raging inferno.

After Meghan was born on August 4, 1981, her parents Thomas and Doria took their new baby back to their modest two-bedroom home on Providencia Street in the Woodland Hills district of LA’s San Fernando Valley. She spent the first years of her life there, along with half-siblings Thomas Jr. and Samantha.

The house on Providencia Street is next to Woodland Hills Country Club, where one of the most dramatic incidents of the fires occurred. On January 10, locals detained a suspected arsonist and held him until police arrived at the scene.

The homeless man in his 20s was restrained by residents – including Criminal Minds actor Brian White – using rope and zip ties after he was seen attempting to start a fire with a blowtorch and a propane gas canister.

White told Deadline.com “we were just all very nervous that the fires were getting close” adding that they decided to make a “citizen’s arrest” after confronting the man. He said: “[We] had zip ties in one garage and little bit of rope in another garage. So we took him down, detained him, and waited for the police. Sixteen cruisers showed up within about seven minutes of us calling, and the rest is on the news.”

Cops later said there was not enough probable cause to arrest the suspect on arson or suspicion of arson, although he was held on a felony probation violation.

At the time, there were two blazes threatening the area: the Kenneth Fire, which burned 1,052 acres in the hills above nearby Calabasas, and the huge, catastrophic Palisades Fire.

Residents in Woodland Hills watched in growing fear as the huge plumes of smoke rose above the mountains and prayed that the winds kept on pushing the blaze south towards the ocean.

On Reddit, one user wrote: “We’re packed up and we’re about to evacuate seeing this fire was reported, but we’re holding on for now bc it’s seeming been put out quickly. The palisades fire is massive, idk if it could burn all the way through topanga to here but if the winds keep up I guess it is possible.”

Another resident posted on Instagram: “This is actually scary because if it breaches these hills and comes back towards Woodland Hills will all be evacuated.”

A large swathe of southern Woodland Hills was put under an evacuation warning and a curfew from 6pm until 6am, but the district was never actually evacuated and the firefighters were able to hold the line in the Topanga State Park.

When Meghan was two years old, her mother took her to live in an apartment in the Wilshire neighbourhood of West Hollywood. Her father also left the Valley for Hollywood, where he worked as a lighting engineer in the TV studios.