By Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press on March 15, 2024.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Los Angeles home of model and actor Cara Delevingne was destroyed in a fire Friday. One firefighter was taken to a hospital in fair condition with unspecified injuries, and one unidentified person from the house suffered minor smoke inhalation, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Nicholas Prange said. Delevingne shared several Instagram stories referring to the fire after TMZ reported that the house in the Studio City neighborhood that was engulfed in flames before dawn belonged to her. Delevingne is currently appearing in a production of “Cabaret” on London’s West End and was apparently not at home. Firefighters arrived at the two-story house to find heavy fire in the rear, which destroyed a room and spread to the attic, Prange said. Once fire crews made certain everyone was out of the house, they took a defensive position and the roof collapsed. It took them more than two hours to put out the flames. Hours later, Delevingne, shared a video that showed a street full of fire trucks with lights flashing. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the firefighters and people that have showed up to help,” another Instagram story read. A third Instagram story showed a photo of two cats with the caption, ” My heart is broken today I cannot believe it life can change in the blink of an eye cherish what you have.” She later clarified with another post that her cats were not hurt in the fire. The home also matches one that was featured in a 2021 profile in Architectural Digest. The white brick house with two pools and two trampolines in the backyard was built in 1941 for the Von der Ahe family, founders of the Vons grocery chain. Delevingne and her designer added playful elements, including a costume room for dress-up parties, a bathroom that’s a memorial to David Bowie, poker and billiard rooms, and a ball pit. “If I’m having a bad day, I just hop in the ball pit,” Delevingne told the magazine. “You can’t really cry in a ball pit.” Delevingne’s representatives did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The cause was under investigation. The 31-year-old London-born Delevingne became widely known as a fashion model in the early 2010s and later began acting, appearing in the 2016 DC Comics film “Suicide Squad” and director Luc Besson’s 2017 “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” She also appeared in the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez in 2022, and on FX’s “American Horror Story” in 2023. ___ Associated Press Writer John Antczak and AP photographer Jae Hong contributed. 17