By Chad Terhune and Fred Greaves
ALTADENA, Calif. (Reuters) – Flames licked his fence, he choked on smoke and bullets whistled past his leg. Despite everything, Tristin Perez never left his home in Altadena during the deadly event Eaton (NYSE: ) fire.
The 34-year-old carpenter felt he had no choice but to stay despite the life-threatening conditions. An officer told him and his neighbors to evacuate early Wednesday morning as the fire raced down the hillside above them.
Instead, 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 hose for a hose. He tore the filters out of two water jugs and strewn the dirt, his wooden fence, and any embers he could get his hands on.
“Your front yard is on fire, the palm trees are lit up — it looked like something out of a movie,” Perez told Reuters in an interview in his driveway. “I did everything I could to stop the line and save my house, help save their houses.”
His one-story yellow duplex survived. As well as two other neighboring houses. Across the road, entire houses burned to the ground. One brick chimney stood alone in the wreckage.
“When you look across the street … If I hadn’t been here, that would have happened,” he said. “I felt so bad for them. It’s absolutely awful.”
Perez mourned the losses. Three years ago, he moved to Altadena and rented his two-bedroom unit. He fell in love with the quiet and close-knit community of about 40,000 people north of Los Angeles, where neighbors are friendly and look out for each other.
As of Saturday night, officials said the Eaton fire was 15% contained and the fire danger remained high throughout the Los Angeles area. In all, the six simultaneous fires that have ripped through Los Angeles County neighborhoods since Tuesday have killed at least 16 people and damaged or destroyed 12,000 structures.
Eleven died in the Eaton fire here. The death toll is expected to rise as firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches.
In Altadena, fire crews went from house to house with shovels, looking for hot spots that were still burning. Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the streets and blocked residents from returning to their homes at checkpoints.
FAST FLAMES
Perez provided a harrowing account of how the Eaton fire quickly intensified early Wednesday. The first indications that something was wrong appeared on Tuesday night. His neighbors were outside staring at the faint glow far in the distance.
“To be honest, I didn’t see it as too much of a threat just because it was far away,” he said.
Then the winds started howling and blowing towards them. The fire was coming straight at them at an alarming rate. “It looked like it was racing down a football field. It was flying,” Perez said.
Then he and his neighbors lost sight of the flames. Perez said that was the most nerve-racking part of the night.
That soon changed. Looking at his street 200 meters away, entire houses and business premises were engulfed in flames. Perez told his neighbors to leave. “I was ready to go all the way. I saw the firefighters, everyone was already missing, so I wanted to do my part,” he said.
Firefighters and law enforcement officials discourage people from staying in their homes during wildfires because it can put residents and first responders at risk.
But Perez thought he had a chance to contain the flames because there was an empty, mostly dirt lot between him and the advancing fire. The downside was that his neighbors to the north also stored crates of ammunition on their property.
Soon, explosions began to resound. Breathing became unbearable. Perez felt something whiz by his leg as he stood in the yard. The fire ignited bullets stored next door, creating a new hazard.
“Bullets are flying, gas tanks are exploding, embers are falling, you can’t see anything,” Perez said.
He watered his property for hours during the night. His home still stands. Many others were not so lucky as thousands of buildings were destroyed around it.
‘HOW TO RESTORE’
Around the corner, Pablo Scarpellini stared at the burned ruins of his wife, Rayuel’s, Spanish preschool. The entire building collapsed, and the small playground slide stood half-melted in the back.
It is devastating, Scarpellini told Reuters. “But I’ve cried so much the last few days, now my vision is more hopeful and trying to visualize how to rebuild it.”
He said his wife, Liliana Martinez, the preschool’s founder and director, is trying to find an alternative for her 15 students. “We are doing everything we can to relocate the children,” he said.
Perez, dressed in a black tank top and shorts, swept branches and brush from his driveway Saturday as the front corner of his yard smoldered. Its white fence has melted in several places. Two palm trees in his yard had black scars on their tops.
Perez has no electricity or running water. Firefighters stationed at a nearby hardware store allowed him to use their equipment to charge his phone so he could tell several family members and friends that he had survived. A downed power line was pulled across his street as utility workers inspected the extensive damage.
While firefighters made progress in containing the Eaton fire over the weekend, Perez said he is preparing for the threat to return if the winds shift.
God forbid something happens, I will be ready, he said. Perez also plans to volunteer for community cleanups in the coming months to help local restaurants and businesses reopen.
“This is not the end of Altadena. This is just the turning of the next chapter.”
