Patricia Heaton says LA fires prove ‘we can’t just rely on government’

Patricia Heaton He criticized California authorities, claiming that officials “dropped the ball” on the response to the Los Angeles fires.

Heaton, who has teamed up with the LA Dream Center to help residents in need, told Fox News Digital in an interview that city leaders are unprepared and asking where taxpayer money is going.

“Everybody Loves Raymond” star called for change after a “very hard lesson”.

CALIFORNIA FIRE: KEY PHONE NUMBERS FOR LOS ANGELES AREA RESIDENTS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM

Patricia Heaton has criticized the government’s response to the Los Angeles fires. (Getty Images)

Heaton explained that Los Angeles did not seem prepared for the fires that began on January 7. Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Since then, numerous fires have broken out in various parts of the star-studded city, destroying thousands of homes and businesses. The actress emphasized the need to manage forestry and actually fill the water reservoirs with water.

“I know that some officials were saying, ‘Well, the system is broken.’ Well, if there’s a big fire, of course it’s going to go down,” he told Fox News Digital. “You have to know that and you have to be prepared for that. I think there’s a lot of money being spent in LA and we can’t figure out where it’s going.”

WATCH: ACTRESS PATRICIA HEATON SAYS WE ‘CANNOT TRUST THE GOVERNMENT’ AFTER LA FIRES DESTROY THE CITY

California residents “can’t just rely on the government to take care of things,” Heaton said.

“It’s people in your community who come together and insist on doing things. Unfortunately, that’s a very, very, very hard lesson.”

“But I think what’s needed to kind of break down the bureaucracy and do what government needs to do is take care of the infrastructure first,” Heaton said.

RORY SYKES, FORMER CHILD STAR, DIES IN CALIFORNIA FIRES, 32

Patricia Heaton moved from Hollywood to Nashville. (Getty Images)

Heaton is working with the LA Dream Center to help with the diaspora relief efforts, and he’s not alone. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kathie Lee Gifford and Chris Pratt donated items or money to a charity to help those affected by the Los Angeles fires.

“They’ve stepped up. They’ve come forward. We’ve had advocacy,” LA Dream Center founder Matthew Barnett told Fox News Digital about celebrity support. “There’s people like Snoop Dogg the other day — like I’ve never met in my life — but he was, like, a minute and a half ago posting about my conversation on Instagram.”

LA Dream Center founder Matthew Barnett told Fox News Digital that Dwayne Johnson, Kathie Lee Gifford and Chris Pratt have donated to the LA Dream Center to help fight the fire. (Karwai Tang/WireImage | Getty Images)

WATCH: DWAYNE ‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON, SNOOP DOGG HELP LA DREAM CENTER FIGHT FIRE

LA Dream Center according to its website, it serves as a resource center focused on “supporting those affected by homelessness, hunger, and lack of education,” typically through community programs.

As Los Angeles continues to experience multiple fires, the charity has shifted gears.

LIKE YOU READ? CLICK HERE FOR ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Patricia Heaton is best known for her role in the television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. (Richard Hartog/Los Angeles Times)

Although Heaton once called Los Angeles home, the actress knows moving to Nashville, Tennessee was the “right decision” for her.

“My four boys still live in L.A. and we go back to hang out and hang out,” she told Fox News Digital. “And we have a lot of friends there and do business there, but Nashville seems to welcome a lot of people from our industry. So I’m not the only one making that decision.”

“It’s filling up,” Heaton noted. “And I have a feeling that after this fire, we’re going to get a lot more talented, creative people … who’ve decided they’ve had enough and are ready to live in a nice place with nice people. Houses burning, taxes going up, crime and they can be creative without worrying about all that stuff.”

In turn, Heaton helped his friends in Los Angeles who had to evacuate and opened his house in Nashville to those who wanted to “get out” of the city.

A man walks through the debris left by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9. (AP/Jae C. Hong)

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

A house burned in the Eaton fire in Altadena on Jan. 8. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

The number of people who lost their homes LA firesStarting with the Palisades Fire on January 7, it continues to rise. Multiple fires have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, and 24 people have died so far.

Strong Santa Ana winds have been blamed for turning wildfires that sparked last week into an inferno across neighborhoods around the nation’s second-largest city, which has seen no significant rain in more than eight months.

In less than a week, the four fires burned more than 62 square miles (160 square kilometers), nearly three times the size of Manhattan.

An air tanker drops a retardant while working to contain the Eaton fire in Altadena on Jan. 13. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Associated Press contributed to this report.