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Good Morning Britain’s Hollywood reporter Ross King has told of the time when his house was almost surrounded by flames during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires

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Scottish broadcaster Ross King, best known for his live reports from Hollywood for ITV shows such as Lorraine and Good Morning Britain, has told of the “horrendous” moment he thought his Los Angeles home was about to go up in smoke.

Speaking on the Sliding Doors podcast ahead of his appearance on Strictly Come Dancing, Ross explained that he lives in the Hollywood Hills, not far from the iconic Hollywood sign.

During the devastating wildfire that had caused at least 30 deaths, he was still covering showbiz stories for ITV. But meanwhile, the wildfires were drawing ever closer.

“It was getting to a point where in the area, they were saying get ready to evacuate… make sure the car is packed. You’re possibly going to have to go. I was here with my girlfriend,” he added, “we were just watching the TV and seeing the horrendous scenes.”

Ross added that his girlfriend Bridget was anxious to leave before the fire got even closer and roads became blocked with traffic.

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“So,” Ross added, “we were sitting thinking, okay, what do we do? And we were still watching it on TV. And then the bizarre thing was that, because this was late at night, I was actually… I’ve got a TV studio in the house.

“So I was running down doing live reports for Lorraine and Good Morning Britain, and then coming back up and then looking and going, ‘where are the fires now?’

“And it was just incredible that we thought, it’s getting really close thinking, ‘we need to go.’ And then you look around the house and you think, you can’t take, obviously, very much.”

Ross said that he was just getting ready to say goodbye his Hollywood home, possibly for the last time, before a “magical” event occurred. He recalled: “Then you look around the house and you think, ‘OK, I’m going to leave the house. This might be the last time that I ever see this house’.”

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But then a firefighting helicopter saved Ross’s house – and possibly his life.

He shared: “A helicopter came in, one of the water drop helicopters, and just made the most magnificent swoop and dropped water… it was just a magical moment that put out such a huge part of the fire.”

Ross added: “We both looked at each other and said, ‘that has just absolutely saved us’. And it saved so many properties, possibly saved so many lives as well. It was just that moment where you thought, oh my goodness me, how life could have been very different, it changed completely.”

He says that while he suffered with significant “Survivor’s Guilt”, admitting “I certainly had that” after seeing how much some of his neighbours had lost in the wildfires, he also realised how lucky he had been.

The Strictly star emotionally divulged: “One day, you’re watching the TV and you’re watching these incredibly sad stories, people that have lost, you know, lives, lost people, lost possessions, lost homes, lost work, lost jobs, everything.

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment just days after he wrote a scathing column in which he claimed the NHS is unaffordable and needs to be scrapped

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Not long after penning a blistering attack on the NHS, where he alleged that numerous overseas medics working in British hospitals are only here because they’ve been banned from practising in their native countries, Jeremy Clarkson ended up requiring hospital treatment himself.

Writing in the Sunday Times, the ex-Top Gear host refused to reveal precisely why he needed urgent medical attention, merely stating that the procedure was “Defcon 1 painful”, before quipping that “they had to chisel me off the ceiling with a spatula afterwards.”

Jeremy revealed that he had, for numerous years, maintained private health cover, but claimed he had grown fed up with how frequently insurers attempted to dodge paying for different treatments.

Rather than this, he chose to consistently deposit money into a separate bank account.

Yet when Jeremy found himself desperately requiring medical attention last weekend, he was a solid two-hour journey from the closest private medical facility.

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This meant he would be entering an NHS hospital mere hours after his piece branding the health service a “creaking old monster” had gone to print.

He quipped: “I had a very hot neck when I realised this and wondered if I should maybe tiptoe into the hospital in a Piers Morgan face mask.”

He fretted that someone might relieve themselves into his tea as an act of revenge, if not actually inflict physical harm upon him.

Nevertheless, the NHS staff proved to be the epitome of professionalism and he left the hospital the next morning none the worse for his ordeal: “It was OK,” he said, “I’ve slept in way worse hotels.”

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Despite having criticised the health service in his column, Jeremy says he had no grumbles about the care he received: “I genuinely couldn’t find anything to moan about at all. The doctors, the nurses and everyone I met were kind. It was all spotless. Lunch was kids’ food-brilliant, and they even made me better – for which I shall be eternally grateful.”

Yet Jeremy still insists that the NHS is simply unaffordable at its present scale, and cautions that the chancellor will be compelled to hike taxes to prop it up: “Rachel Reeves is going to have to fleece absolutely everyone for more cash,” he forecast.

“She came for the farmers last time around. This time, I wouldn’t be surprised if she came after your children’s pocket money. And of course, she’ll tell us she needs more money for the NHS.”

He reeled off a string of things that could be outlawed to ease the burden on the health service, including tanning salons, wood-burning stoves, and meat. He also argues that the NHS needs a radical overhaul, if not complete dissolution: “It’s an excellent organisation and the frontline staff are superb,” he pens.