Amid the deadliest fires in Los Angeles’ history — which have gutted thousands of acres of land, destroyed residents’ homes, and killed at least five people — neighbors have found ways to help each other.
As the Palisades, Eaton, and other fires have ripped through the city, media reports have shed light on Angelenos who have risked their lives to help their neighbors — with some even turning into de-facto firefighters, helping put out flames.
“I was bucketing out of my jacuzzi and a pool across the way at people’s homes. I stopped a couple fires. I stopped one that went, and then it reignited at about 4:30 this morning, and thank God I woke up at the perfect time,” one resident said, fighting back tears.
It came over the hillside, embers started landing and catching things on fire, and that’s when my son yelled, ‘Dad, we got to get out of here!’ But my neighbor was still in his house, and I said, ‘Michael, Michael,’ and I’m banging on his wall, and saying, ‘We got to go, we got to go,’” another resident said. “And he was really slow at getting out. He went to get in his car. I knew it was going to take too long, so I just pulled him in my truck, and we got out of there. Things were burning.”
“I live a couple towns over. I came because I knew there was going to be a crazy amount of horses. I have horse experience, so I figured there was going to be, you know, 400 head here. And so, I figured I’d come and just help people move and give water, and shavings, and whatnot,” said one Angeleno who came to help the many horses that had to be evacuated as the fires raged.
As of Thursday morning, the fires have burned about 42 square miles of land — nearly equivalent to the size of San Francisco — and at least 130,000 people were under evacuation orders. None of the main blazes were yet fully contained.
