Nickelodeon star Josh Peck sparks fan outrage over 'mocking' family trying to save house on fire

Former Nickelodeon child star Josh Peck has sparked outrage after posting a video fans say mocked a family trying to save their home from a fire.

The 39-year-old actor, who shot to fame alongside Drake Bell on Drake and Josh, shared footage on Instagram of a house engulfed in flames as people desperately tried to douse it with buckets of water.

In the clip, a woman’s futile attempt to throw water appeared genuine in the confusion of a real-life disaster, but Peck followed it with a second video that critics say mocked the situation.

In that clip, he stood at a car wash in front of his Tesla, spraying the concrete rather than the car, seemingly imitating the woman’s struggle, captioning it: ‘It’s in the effort and not the results.’ 

Fans quickly took to social media to slam the star for being tone-deaf and making fun of people in distress.

One commenter didn’t hold back, writing: ‘Going out of your way to be a piece of sh** like this and filming it in front of your shiny nice car just goes to show how incredibly out of touch wealthy people are. Disgusting.' 

One chimed in, ‘Immature and disgusting behavior,’ as another commented, ‘Wtf, what a disgusting piece of human excrement.’ 

Another fan summed it up simply, ‘I thought he was a good one. Oh well! Another day, another disappointment.’ 

Yet another wrote, ‘The fact that he had to go out of his way to be a dick.’ 

One even commented on the use of water at the car wash, saying, ‘That's disgusting and wasteful AF.’ 

And another asked, ‘Why would he post this? Genuinely confused.’

Daily Mail has reached out to Peck's reps for comment.  

The controversy comes nearly two years after Peck faced criticism for not speaking out publicly when his former co-star Bell revealed he was sexually abused as a teenager, a story detailed in the 2024 docuseries Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.

Bell, 39, revealed he was the unidentified minor who came forward in 2003 about being molested at age 15 by dialogue coach Brian Peck (no relation to Josh).

Brian Peck, now 65, served 16 months in prison between 2004 and 2005 after being arrested on 11 charges, including sodomy, lewd acts on a child aged 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older, and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance.

In March 2024, Josh Peck took to Instagram to break his silence, offering support to his friend and other victims of abuse.

‘I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it. I reached out to Drake privately, but wanted to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world,’ he wrote.

‘Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.’

Bell previously asked his 19.2 million social media followers to ‘take it easy’ on Josh over his earlier silence.

The two stars reunited a year later on a podcast, where Peck shared how he realized that his co-star had been abused by producer and director Brian Peck.

‘That big break between Drake & Josh and The Amanda Show is when I told my mom what was going on,’ Drake explained at the time.

‘We went to the police, there was the investigation and all the stuff that you saw in the documentary, that was when all of that was going on.’

Referring to their time on Drake & Josh, he continued: ‘Then when we shot the pilot, we were in the middle of the investigation. But nobody had known anything because Brian hadn't been arrested.

‘So I had to come back from The Amanda Show - where the dude was, where the abuse was happening... the worst part about it was having the monster in your safe place.’

Josh added: ‘Something I feel bad about is, until you sort of shared with me what was happening, I was just looking at it through the prism of a 14-year-old's brain going like, "ahhhh he doesn't want much to do with me."

‘And thankfully, everyone who did know was galvanizing around you, because God knows you needed the support and deserved every inch of it, I just didn't know any of this at 14.

‘And then watching the documentary at 38, as a father, as a grownup, so much was revealed to me and of what you had to go through, and I can't even imagine that,’ he continued.

Later on the podcast, he recalled Brian's sudden absence: ‘He was gone and I didn't know anything except I had a feeling something happened.

‘And I remember we were in the car and I said, "Do you still talk to Brian?" and you just looked at me like, "No, Brian's a really bad guy."

‘And I remember thinking, "Gotcha," and it was all that I needed to know, and I didn't know anything more than that but I was like, "that's clear, gotcha.”’