British actress Jane Seymour said she got out of her Malibu home “just in time” with only the clothes on her back as the Californian wildfire came “right up to my house”.

The James Bond star praised firefighters who did an “astounding” job saving her home from the blaze – dubbed the Franklin Fire – which ignited on Monday evening.

Seymour said her “whole house smells of smoke” after returning on Thursday, having rushed to evacuate the property late on Monday evening.

“I just literally had jeans and a sweater, which I’ve been wearing for four days and sleeping at different people’s houses,” Seymour said on the red carpet of the British American Business Council (BABC) annual Christmas luncheon.

“On Monday night, at 10.50pm, we got a call from my partner, John Zambetti’s son Johnny, who was in Serra Retreat.

“(He) saw a glow behind the curtains, opened the windows, saw 10 foot flames, and called us immediately and said ‘Get out. Get out’.

“We all got out just in time because of that.”

The latest update from the City of Malibu confirmed more than 4,000 acres burned during the wind-driven wildfire with 14 buildings destroyed and 13 damaged.

Hollywood star Dick Van Dyke, who turned 99 on Friday, and pop superstar Cher were among the stars forced to leave their homes.

Collecting the LA icon honour at the BABC event in Los Angeles, Seymour said: “This is a huge honour, and after the week that we’ve had with the fires coming right up to my house, I couldn’t even conceive of putting clothes on, let alone being able to come and talk to anyone about anything.”

On the red carpet, Seymour said the blaze “did not attack the house” because “the fire trucks just came right away, and we got saved”.

“The whole house smells of smoke, but we’re just so grateful,” she said.

“The job the fire brigade did is beyond belief. If you are where I live, and you look up the hill, and every house the fire came right up to one inch of the dwelling.

“It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that so few structures were burned.”

Seymour starred opposite the late Sir Roger Moore as James Bond in 1973’s Live And Let Die – his first as the MI6 agent.

The two-time Golden Globe winner said being a Bond Girl is a “moniker that will never leave me”, describing it as “probably the most important British export you can be a part of”.

Seymour said she feels “incredibly blessed” to still be working at the age of 73.

“I don’t know how that works, because usually you turn 40 and you’re a woman and you’re too old. But when I was 40, I got a little thing called Dr Quinn, and that really saved my life – I’ve been very fortunate,” she added.

Seymour won the best actress Golden Globe in 1996 for her role as Michaela Quinn in Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, 14 years after her win for East Of Eden.