Melissa Rivers Saves Joan Rivers’ Emmy Before Home Burned in L.A. Fires: ‘My Heart Is So Broken’

In the frantic moments before flames devoured her Pacific Palisades residence, Melissa Rivers managed to rescue precious mementos of her late mother, Joan Rivers, including a coveted Emmy Award and an irreplaceable family drawing. Speaking to CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins in a live Wednesday night interview, Rivers, 56, detailed the harrowing experience of evacuating her home as wildfires swept through her neighborhood.

“I kind of had a mental checklist. I made sure that we got passports, birth certificates, medication, clothing. I just was out shopping for clothes. It started to hit me, we literally just had what was on our backs,” Rivers recounted, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Among the salvaged treasures was Joan Rivers’ 1990 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host from The Joan Rivers Show. “Luckily, my office which is in — was in — my home, [I grabbed] whatever was there. In my personal situation, that’s it, that’s the end of everything that belonged to my family and the history of it,” Rivers explained. “To be 100 percent honest, I grabbed my mom’s Emmy, a photo of my dad, and a drawing that my mother had done of me and my son.”

The TV personality reflected on her instinctive choices during the crisis, telling Collins, “It’s amazing what you grab, it’s amazing what you take. I went for a drawing of my mother’s rather than a photo because I know I can find the photos. [But a drawing of hers] I can’t replace,” Parade reports.

Drawing from her experience as a longtime Los Angeles resident, Rivers emphasized the importance of preparation. “The most important thing is, have your papers,” she advised. “Have all your ID, have your passport, have that in one place ready to go. Thank goodness we are organized like that.”

The devastation extends beyond Rivers’ personal loss, as multiple celebrity homes have succumbed to the inferno. Jamie Lee Curtis, Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton, James Woods, and Brad Paisley are among those affected, with some losing homes and others joining efforts to support first responders.

Surveying the widespread destruction, Rivers expressed collective grief for her community: “My heart is so broken not just for myself, but for everyone going through this,” she said, lamenting that her neighborhood was “a town and it is wiped off the map.”

The Associated Press reports that the disaster has claimed at least five lives, with approximately 130,000 residents under evacuation orders as new fires emerge, including a recent outbreak in the Hollywood Hills area.