Joan Rivers' Daughter Saved Emmy Award from L.A. Wildfire that Destroyed Her Home

Comedian Joan Rivers won an Emmy in 1990 for her talk show, beating fellow daytime programming luminaries Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Jeff Smith for the honor.

That statuette was one of just a few prized possessions Rivers' daughter Melissa saved from the wildfires in L.A. that destroyed numerous celebrity homes, Variety reported.

Melissa made a point of preserving one-of-a-kind items with deep significance to her family. "I kind of had a mental checklist," she said of the preparations she made for fleeing the Pacific Palisades area where her home once stood.

"I made sure that we got passports, birth certificates, medication, clothing," Melissa added. "In my personal situation, that's it, that's the end of everything that belonged to my family and the history of it," she went on to say.

Except, that is, for the items she made a point to preserve from the flames. "To be 100% 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."

"She explained that she decided to save a drawing Joan did over family photos 'because I know I can find the photos'," Variety recounted, while "I can't replace" the drawing Joan Rivers created.

Melissa told the publication that her town had been "wiped off the map" by one of the two blazes that are thought to have destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other structures in a mere few days, leaving almost 60 square miles of scorched earth in their wake.

"Melissa Rivers is one of many celebrities who have lost their homes in the wildfires," Variety noted. "Others include Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, Paris Hilton, Anna Faris, Billy Crystal, James Woods and more."