“I had smoke alarms going off in my house and a fire truck parked in front of my house, but they couldn’t pump any water. There was none because they didn’t put them in the reservoirs, OK?” the actor said to Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night.

“If it is true that things were handled this way,” he continued, referring to California‘s state and local leaders. “If it is true that [Gov.] Gavin Newsom is the absolute blithering idiot that I believe he is, and the way he has handled fire management in this state again and again and again and again — this isn’t a wake-up call. This is the kind of thing that they have tribunals for where they try people.”

The Hollywood star continued to slam the leadership’s handling of the fires as not some “social justice exercise” but as real experiences of people needing water for their homes as fires and winds were burning down entire neighborhoods.

In response to an X post criticizing Woods, he blasted “liberal idiots” for electing “liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and [LA Mayor] Karen Bass” who didn’t understand “the first thing about fire management” and “can’t fill the water reservoirs.”

Earlier on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump criticized the California governor for the reports of firefighters running low on water resources to battle the raging fires.

“Gov. Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday.

“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump added.

Bass also became a target of ire for traveling overseas in Ghana while residents battled fires in their neighborhoods. Woods raised another critique of her leadership because she had previously cut fire department funding, which might have helped save his home.

“The most important task ahead is not to be bitter, but…” Woods said on X as he showed a screenshot of a news headline about Bass cutting millions in funding from the local fire department just months before Wednesday’s devastating destruction.

Woods garnered attention about his painful story when he began sharing on his X account about the harrowing evacuation of his home as fires and smoke clouds quickly descended over his neighborhood.

Woods also decried the politics behind the choice of the latest fire chief at the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“Priorities stated in her bio below. Refilling the water reservoirs would have been a welcome priority, too, but I guess she had too much on her plate promoting diversity,” he said on X.

The 77-year-old actor shared an emotional story on CNN on Wednesday about how he helped rescue an elderly neighbor with dementia an hour before the house was burned down. He implored residents to evacuate instead of trying to use a garden hose to stop the fires.

Woods also told a tearful story of how an 8-year-old girl offered him her Yeti piggy bank to help them rebuild his house.

James Woods breaks down in tears on CNN pic.twitter.com/Hw1nxQkBTu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 8, 2025

“There is no possession as priceless as friends and good neighbors during a tragedy. I can’t believe the blessings we enjoy, and I am humbly grateful,” he said on social media in response to everyone sharing their prayers and concerns.

The Hollywood star told Ingraham how important “good neighbors” are to have around you.

“It’s astonishing that what happened during this experience was that we found out that none of us was a celebrity. None of us is a poor person or rich person, a Democrat or a Republican. We were just neighbors just really helping each other,” he said tearfully on Fox News on Wednesday night.

“It was an extraordinary experience of realizing how essential good neighbors, good friends, and good relatives are to have,” he said as he shared the outpouring of support for him as he lost his house.

Woods posted a video of the beautiful view from his home that he had filmed on a peaceful day just before the fires devastated his neighborhood.

“I took this last night from our beautiful little home in the Palisades. Now all the fire alarms are going off at once remotely,” Woods wrote, adding, “It tests your soul, losing everything at once, I must say.”

The multiple wildfires consumed the Los Angeles area, displacing more than 100,000 people as they ravaged entire neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and historic sites.