By Chad Terhune and Fred Greaves

ALTADENA, California (Reuters) – Flames licked his fence, he choked on smoke, and bullets whizzed through his leg. Despite all this, Tristin Perez never left his home in Altadena during the deadly Eaton (NYSE: ) fire.

The 34-year-old carpenter felt he had no choice but to hang on despite the life-threatening conditions. A police official told him and his neighbors to evacuate early Wednesday morning as the fire raced up the hillside above them.

However, Perez insisted on trying to save his property and the homes of his neighbors along El Molino Avenue. But he didn’t even have a garden hose. He tore the strainers from the two water jugs and poured over the ground, his wooden fence and every ember he could reach.

“Your front yard is on fire, the palm trees are on fire – it’s like something out of a movie,” Perez told Reuters in an interview on his way. “I did everything to stop the line and save my house, help save their houses.”

His one-story yellow duplex survived. The same goes for two other neighboring houses. Across the street, an entire house was on fire. A brick chimney stood alone in the ruin.

“If you look across the street… If I’m not here, that’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “I feel bad for them. It’s absolutely horrible.”

Perez mourned the losses here. He moved to Altadena three years ago and rents out his two-bedroom unit. He fell in love with the peaceful and tight-knit community of about 40,000 people north of Los Angeles, where neighbors are friendly and look out for each other.

As of late Saturday, officials said the Eaton fire was 15% contained, and that the fire threat remained high throughout the Los Angeles area. In all, six simultaneous fires that have ravaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles County since Tuesday have killed at least 16 people and damaged or destroyed 12,000 structures.

Eleven of them died in the Eaton fire here. The death toll is expected to rise once firefighters are able to conduct house searches.

In Altadena, firefighters went door to door with shovels, looking for hot spots still burning. Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the streets and blocked residents from returning to their homes at checkpoints.

WET YELLOWS

Perez gave a harrowing account of how the Eaton fire quickly escalated early Wednesday. The first sign that something was wrong happened on Tuesday night. His neighbors were outside watching a small light in the distance.

“Honestly, I don’t really consider it a threat just because it’s so far out there,” he said.

Then the wind started howling and blowing towards them. The fire was coming right at them with alarming speed. “It’s like sprinting across a football field. It’s flying,” Perez said.

Then he and his neighbors lost sight of the fire. Perez said that was the most surprising part of the night.

That soon changed. Looking his way 200 yards away, entire houses and businesses were engulfed in flames. Perez told his neighbors to leave. “I’m ready to go to the end. I see the firefighters, everyone is shorthanded, so I want to do my part,” he said.

Fire officials and law enforcement are discouraging people from staying in their homes during a fire because it could put residents and first responders at risk.

But Perez felt he had a shot at putting out the flames because there was an empty, mostly land between him and the advancing fire. What made it worse was that his neighbors on the north side also stored boxes of ammunition in their property.

Soon the explosions started going off. Breathing became unbearable. Perez felt someone step on his leg while standing in his yard. The fire ignited ammunition stored in the house next door, posing a fresh hazard.

“Bullets were flying, gas tanks were exploding, embers were raining down, you couldn’t see anything,” Perez said.

He continued to empty his property for several hours throughout the night. His house is still standing. Many others were not as lucky as the thousands of structures that were destroyed around him.

‘HOW TO BUILD’

Around the corner, Pablo Scarpellini stared at the charred ruins of his wife, Rayuela’s, Spanish immersion preschool. The entire building collapsed, and a small playground slide sat half-melted in the back.

“It’s devastating,” Scarpellini told Reuters. “But I’ve been crying a lot for the last few days, now my vision is more of hope and trying to imagine how to rebuild it.”

He said his wife, Liliana Martinez, the founder and director of the preschool, was looking for an alternative for her 15 students. “We’re doing everything we can to move the kids,” he said.

Perez, wearing a black tank top and shorts, swept tree limbs and swept out of her driveway Saturday as the front corner of her yard smoldered. His white picket fence has melted in many places. Two palm trees in his front yard had black scars on them.

Perez has no power or running water. Firefighters stationed at a nearby hardware store allowed him to use their equipment to charge his phone so he could tell some family members and friends that he was safe. A downed power line covered his road as utility workers assessed the extensive damage.

As firefighters make progress containing the Eaton fire over the weekend, Perez said he’s preparing for the threat to return if the winds shift.

“Lord forbid anything happens, I’m ready,” he said. Perez also plans to volunteer for community cleanups in the coming months to help local restaurants and businesses reopen.

“It’s not the end of Altadena. It’s just turning the next chapter over.”