Jane Seymour is opening up after her Malibu, Calif. home was threatened by last week’s wildfires.
Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the American Ballet Theater Annual Benefit on Monday, Dec. 16, the former Bond girl, 73, revealed the important possessions she grabbed before evacuating her home.
“Well, the crazy thing is I took some jewelry that had sentimental value, and I grabbed two books that my mother had saved during World War II in a concentration camp,” she tells PEOPLE at The Beverly Hilton. “I thought if they could survive that, then they needed to survive this fire, so they came with me.”
Seymour marveled at the simple act of getting dressed for the event, commenting, “It’s surreal to be putting on clothes that probably would’ve gone poof. We all ran out of the house in jeans, just going, ‘Okay, it’s probably all going to be gone.’ So we’re incredibly grateful.”
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Seymour continues, “It’s what we live with in California. I mean, all over the world now. Right? There is no place that doesn’t have some natural disaster.”
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The actress also explains that the flames were right outside her boyfriend John Zambetti’s window in Serra Retreat.
“He was on Serra Road, literally right out there,” she tells PEOPLE. “And he called us. His son was there, and he called us immediately and said, ‘Get out now. The flames are right here.’ And we ran out.”
She adds, “The flames were not at our house for another maybe two hours, but then it was right outside our house.”
“At the same time, very aware of the fact that the practical things we do in terms of having hydrants. There was a volunteer fire brigade,” she says. “They’re in Malibu now. They definitely saved my partner’s house, or at least saved it until the proper brigade came.”
Seymour concluded that she was “hugely grateful” for life and how her home is still intact.
According to Sky News, the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman star had to evacuate her home on Dec. 9, due to the blaze, leaving with just the clothes she had on.
She told the outlet that the “whole house smells of smoke” when she returned three days later.
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