Ellen DeGeneres will count her blessings

13 December 2017

Ellen DeGeneres will be "counting her blessings" for Christmas.

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi

The talk show host and her wife Portia de Rossi recently had to evacuate their pets from their California home due to threats from the Thomas Fire, and despite the scary situation, the 59-year-old presenter thinks it's given her timely reminder of how fragile life is, so she will use the festive season to reflect on her gratitude for her personal situation.

She said: "Yeah, I'll be in town... We'll just... we'll just lay low and just, you know, be grateful for having our pets with us and Portia's horses are evacuated and we're hoping to get them someplace soon and it's, you know, it takes something like this to just remember, you know, just how fragile life is, and how you should never take anything for granted... I'll be counting my blessings for Christmas."

But the evacuation means Ellen and Portia, 44, may now need to rethink their Christmas plans.

She told 'Extra' presenter Mario Lopez: "I was planning on going up to my home in Montecito but I don't think we're going to be going there, so what are you doing? I'm gonna come over, I think."

Mario quipped: "You're always welcome at Casa Lopez. God forbid anything happens, come with us."

The couple evacuated the $18.6 million beachfront Santa Barbara house earlier this week because of the threat from the terrifying wildfires, but they haven't been able to return to see if the property is damaged.

Ellen said: "Our house...it's there right now, but no one can get in to check on it. We basically just had to get out and leave the gates open for the fire trucks and we're right in it...we're right there."

The Thomas Fire has scorched more than 200,000 acres in the Santa Barbara area and more than 88,000 people have had to evacuate, with 85,000 without power.

Around 4,000 firefighters have been deployed to deal with the blaze.

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency as wildfires ripped through California.

He told CBS News: "These fires are unprecedented. We've never seen anything like it. Scientists are telling us, 'This is the kind of stuff that's gonna happen.' And we gotta deal with it."