survivors of devastating disasters Eaton Fire Destroyed the Altadena area Los Angeles County Recently spoke about his experience fighting hell.
Altadena resident Justin Christie spoke with Fox News Digital Saturday afternoon about his experience. The Eaton Fire that started Tuesday was only 15% contained as of Saturday evening.
Christie explained that his family has lived in the area since 1967 and had never seen anything as destructive as the Eaton Fire before.
“(I saw) a lot of fires on this hillside,” Christie recalled. “When I saw this, when I walked out into the street and saw the flames burning on the hillside, I felt like something was different.”
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“I was really scared and I started thinking about what I needed to do to prepare.”
Christie said he was particularly shocked when he saw one of his palm trees on fire, something that had never happened before. He quickly got all his family members into the car and drove away from the scene.
“In all the fires, we’ve never had a tree catch on fire,” he said. “That’s really saying, okay … we’re in big trouble.”
Christie later drove over to check on the condition of his house, and when he realized no one could put out the fire on his palm tree, Christie decided to take matters into his own hands and put out the fire himself.
“There were many times I thought my house was going to disappear,” he recalled. “From 8pm to 12pm. The house next to me burned down and was the last house that put me in danger.”
“When that person finally calmed down… I felt a little bit of relief.”
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But Christie said the sense of relief didn’t last long when another neighbor’s garage caught fire. Although Christie’s house escaped unscathed by the fire, residents described the entire situation as “shocking.”
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s enough to make you want to cry,” Christie said. “A lot of people lost everything.”
“I never thought… we’d been here so long… I always thought we were out of reach of the fire.”
Reflecting on the experience, Christie described the sounds and sights. wildfire for “unbelievable”.
“Glass shattering, gas lines exploding, people’s propane tanks, cars on fire,” he vividly described. “It sounds like there’s a couple of freight trains coming your way.”
Overall, Christie said it was nothing short of a miracle that his house survived the Eaton Fire.
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“It was a miracle that I got the fire under control… the wind stopped at the right time,” he said. “If it hadn’t… it would have grabbed this lattice next to me and it would have set my house on fire and I would have been screwed. There were several times I wanted to leave, but I didn’t stay.
“If I left, the house would be gone. Completely gone.”