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00:01This documentary shows actions undertaken in extreme circumstances.
00:06If you're at risk from wildfire, please seek local emergency advice.
00:12Dude.
00:13Look at that. Look at that.
00:14That's really concerning.
00:15If you haven't evacuated, please do so now.
00:19Wildfire ignites in bone-dry hills above Pacific Palisades, California.
00:25Fanned by hurricane-force winds, homes are burning in less than an hour.
00:30That fire crossing the ridge was the kiss of death for our community.
00:35This house is already gone. Damn.
00:39Residents try to flee on jam-packed streets.
00:42There was a car that started to catch on fire, five cars behind us.
00:46And my daughter says to me, Mom, we're going to have to get out of the car.
00:49We have to run.
00:50I tried to start my car. It wouldn't start.
00:52I saw this small truck.
00:54This woman comes running down the hill.
00:57I basically body slammed on this car.
00:59Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
01:01As Los Angeles fights for its life, an even more devastating fire erupts.
01:07I'm thinking, this is bad.
01:09Triggering a night without end.
01:22At 6.18pm, the Eton fire ignites beneath power lines in the San Gabriel Mountains above Altadena.
01:30As he drives home, Oscar Franco tries to warn his wife.
01:34We live about a mile, mile and a half away from that point.
01:38Tell my son, get Mom on the phone.
01:41They said, there's a fire.
01:42I didn't believe them because my boys are jokesters.
01:46And that's when my husband said, go outside.
01:50Take a look at the mountain. The mountain's on fire.
01:54When my husband and son pulled up to the driveway, I was exiting the house by the front door.
02:00Immediately, my husband said, we need to go.
02:03My 16-year-old ran inside and said, hey mom, there's a fire.
02:08I said, okay, I'll come see it in a second.
02:10He's like, no, come see it now. It's close.
02:12I went outside and I could see the entire sky was lit up.
02:17A lot of people were starting to leave.
02:19The police were driving around, sirens.
02:22It was chaos.
02:26As the single mom of three boys, Terica tells her family to start packing.
02:32I handed each of my kids a luggage and told them to take whatever was special to them.
02:3710-year-old Grayson is blind.
02:40He will be leaving the only home he has ever known.
02:43I was pretty scared.
02:45Like, I just grabbed five random pairs of clothes and a couple of airplanes and my tablet.
02:53So we got all the photo albums. I got all of my important documents.
02:57I knew it would get worse.
02:58I wasn't overly concerned because I thought, you know, I'd seen so many fires before.
03:05And the last fire that came from that direction took two days to reach us.
03:10Located in the San Gabriel foothills, Zorthian Ranch has survived several fires.
03:15Zorthian Ranch is 43 acres in Altadena, California.
03:21My father came there in 1946.
03:25My father was an artist and he saw this as an opportunity to build and to express himself through construction.
03:35From Zorthian, the distant fire is hidden by the mountains in between.
03:39You don't see nothing. You just see a glow.
03:41And you're just like, okay, it's still going. It's still going.
03:44You see a glow off to the east.
03:46A few times I had to go down, get away from the mountains so I could see where it was.
03:51It became increasingly clear that it was approaching us.
03:54Hey, babe. We have to get out of here. Oh, my God.
03:59I knew the fire department wasn't going to come up and help us fight the fire.
04:04But I was convinced that I was ready to fight it and we could stop it.
04:09Southwest of the fire, Rich Snyder knows that it will soon reach his neighborhood.
04:15Wherever the smoke is going is where the fire is going to go.
04:18And it was coming over my neighborhood.
04:21Within 20 minutes, we had embers dropping and we had a police car drive down the street
04:26announcing mandatory evacuation. And my neighbors left.
04:3145 minutes after the start of the Eaton fire, homes were burning in my community.
04:36An hour after it started, I still didn't have a fire engine there.
04:41We are so ****.
04:44Damn it. Damn it.
04:47Let's make sure Lee's house doesn't catch on fire.
04:51I called the dispatch. Hey, it's Rich.
04:54Got a house that's just starting. If you can get an engine here, we can save my street.
05:00And dispatch says, we've got nothing. You're on your own.
05:05I need to find something else for you.
05:07Just eight blocks north, a full firefighting strike team tries to slow the fire spread.
05:14But all this water is just one small drop in a proverbial bucket of flame.
05:22Wildfires are fought by creating fire breaks with bulldozers because you can't deliver enough water for the amount of heat
05:29that's being generated.
05:30Across Southern California, thousands of first responders mobilize.
05:35But the combined scale of the Palisades and Eaton fires is already beyond the worst case projections.
05:43If you had one fire engine just on the Eaton fire for every house that was burning, you'd need 8
05:49,000 fire engines and 27,000 firefighters.
05:53There's not that many firefighters in the state of California.
05:56So the thought of there wasn't enough firefighters. You're right. There wasn't. And there never will be.
06:04No, he's on fire, man. We got to go.
06:06Adding to the chaos, Altadena is home to dozens of large-scale retirement and assisted living communities.
06:13There you go. Let's take him out.
06:16With emergency phone lights flooded by requests for assistance, first responders race against time and fire to help people evacuate.
06:27Police!
06:29This was a hurricane. Instead of wind and water, it was wind and fire.
06:3830 miles west, Caleb's servant Lawler tries to drive Nani and her four dogs out of the Palisades.
06:46Oh, my gosh.
06:47It's okay. It's all good.
06:50There was one wrong turn that we did.
06:51Oh, oh, oh, oh. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
06:53We actually started going back up the hill. Nani's like, no.
06:57Where are we?
06:58That's right.
06:58Yeah.
06:59I got you.
07:00I was mainly scared about the flying trash cans.
07:03You're driving down in a freaking trash can to fly right across you.
07:07I was more worried about something hitting and disabling my vehicle.
07:10I was afraid that his car would catch on fire and we would just all die.
07:14It was something else. It was like a freaking war zone.
07:17So I was driving like this and holding the pit bull in the back
07:20so the pit bull wouldn't jump in the front and get the husky and the chihuahuas.
07:25So I was driving like that.
07:26I drove like this for 35 minutes.
07:28I'm just so afraid that I'm alive.
07:31Like I thought I was a guy.
07:33The dogs got along.
07:34I think they were just so stressed out.
07:36They just knew, okay, we better not make any trouble.
07:39Just comply.
07:40Comply with mom.
07:42As Nani and her dogs leave the Palisades, in Altadena, Rich Snyder faces danger that increases by the second.
07:50I got a cop going to get an engine, but who knows. Embercast over here.
07:55But after 30 years battling blazes, he has friends who were equally skilled at fighting fires.
08:02I gave Rich a call and said, you know, do you need any help? And he said, yes. And I
08:07said, I'll be there.
08:08I arrived probably about 730.
08:11Two more retired firefighters arrive with flame retardants to spray on trees and shrubs.
08:17Let's back up and start here.
08:19And that's when the fire in the next block over in the backyard started.
08:23I don't want to lose my house, guys.
08:26Are you, uh, you already called mine. You called mine. Obviously called dispatch.
08:28I called dispatch direct.
08:31Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:31They're on the streets here. They're not going to make it down here.
08:34My nephew showed up.
08:36Rich's nephew, with zero firefighting experience, drives in from nearby Pasadena.
08:41When I called Rich and asked him if he needed help, I had no idea what I was getting into.
08:46Everyone else is evacuating, and I am headed up into the fire.
08:51And I had him started taping up my vents.
08:54So that no ember casts get underneath the house and catch the house on fire.
08:59He got my home, wasn't able to get to the next because by the time he was finished,
09:04the backyard of my neighbor's house, two doors up, started on fire.
09:07Rich just told me to just grab the garden hose and put out anything that starts landing.
09:12Still back here, Matt?
09:14Okay, keep it going.
09:17Just stand by. Just stand by.
09:18Don't water unless you see something, okay?
09:21Neighbor jumped over the fence from the next block.
09:23Isaac said, what can I do?
09:25And I said, just start going in all the houses.
09:27Get the garden hoses.
09:29You see embers, put them out.
09:30Or just do what we can.
09:32Does she have sprinklers that can be run outside?
09:35No, that's not going to do any good anyway.
09:38All we were going to be able to do is not firefight.
09:40You cannot fight a wildfire with a garden hose.
09:44But if an ember starts and a little fire starts, you put it out before it becomes a big fire.
09:50There was a telephone pole three doors up that caught fire.
09:53I had never seen anything like that in my life.
09:55God dang it.
09:57And in these winds, as soon as that fire started, I knew we're going to lose my house.
10:03We're going to lose my street.
10:04Please help the winds die down.
10:06Help us save our homes.
10:10Most importantly, save us, Lord.
10:18The Palisades and Eton fires are separate nightmare events.
10:23But their speed and ferocity are best explained by what they have in common.
10:29We had two wet, rainy seasons.
10:31Lots of fuel growth.
10:33And now we've got vegetation that was thicker, particularly the flashy fuels.
10:38More vegetation that was stressed because of the drought.
10:42So you had all this foliage that is just baking in the sun for months and months.
10:46And on top of that, you had this giant windstorm.
10:48With all these conditions, I think it doesn't take a rocket scientist to really figure out
10:53that what could occur could be unprecedented.
11:00The height of the brush was unbelievable.
11:03And I'd always sort of looked at the valley topography.
11:06If the conditions came, there would be nothing that could stop this
11:10because the brush goes right up to the properties.
11:12It happened.
11:13It wasn't a surprise.
11:15When you add these winds, it's going to blow right into some of these neighborhoods.
11:19And once it hits those neighborhoods, you're going to have what happened in Paradise a few years ago.
11:24You're going to have what happened in Santa Rosa in Northern California.
11:27And yeah, it's going to happen again.
11:30Homes are burning everywhere.
11:32They're everywhere.
11:34You don't have to be in a wildland area for this to be a problem.
11:37Now that seems like blowing a whistle and saying, hey, everyone, the world's going to burn down.
11:42We saw Lahaina.
11:45How many people thought that Lahaina was going to burn to the ground?
11:49Coast to coast, America has been hit hard by dozens of recent megafires.
11:55This pattern is being repeated all over the globe.
11:59The deadliest wildfires in Chile's history recently killed more than 100 people.
12:06When you have the interface of communities, urban setting, next to a wildfire area, that is a collision of disaster.
12:19In Australia, a swarm of wildfires burned more than 207 million acres.
12:26In Canada, smoke from record-breaking wildfires impacted the health of nearly 350 million people in Europe, Canada, and the
12:36United States.
12:38Portugal and Spain are now under siege by over 1,000 wildfires per year.
12:43We're all potentially threatened.
12:46This can happen again without even there being a mountain fire.
12:51It can happen in a residential neighborhood.
12:53Just a windstorm and a spark from a power line.
12:56I think this gave us a taste of what could be coming in the future.
13:03Okay, I'm being asked to leave.
13:06That's an inferno.
13:08That's an inferno.
13:09That's the only way through right now.
13:10Okay.
13:11The combined Palisades and Eaton fires are the costliest megafire in history.
13:18Just one month before the record-breaking Los Angeles fires, 32-year-old Malibu surfer Alec Gellis had his own
13:27close encounter with wildfire.
13:29I'm in the community of Sarah Retreat, which is right behind the Malibu Country Mart.
13:33Not many people know about it.
13:34It's a hidden gem.
13:35And it was ground zero for the Franklin Fire.
13:40During the Franklin Fire, videos of Alec helping save the homes of Hollywood legends Dick Van Dyke and Patrick Dempsey
13:48went viral.
13:49The ember will land in the crown of the palm tree where it's a moss nest.
13:53It's super flammable.
13:55And then it shoots sparks, embers everywhere.
13:58Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
14:00They'll land on a lawn.
14:02They'll land in a bush.
14:03They'll land on a roof.
14:03But if you're there with your hose and you can spray it down, you can save a whole neighborhood.
14:08In total, just 20 buildings were lost to the Franklin Fire.
14:14January 7th, 2025 gives Alec a bad feeling of deja vu.
14:19It's like a month since the Franklin Fire.
14:22This Palisades Fire is a whole other beast.
14:25The winds are twice as fast.
14:27It's moving 10 times faster.
14:29I go to my girlfriend at the Times house, monitoring the fire from that vantage point.
14:34The wind's picking up.
14:36But it's like, you know, you're in Malibu.
14:38The Palisades is 15 miles away.
14:40You're thinking, how could the fire go all the way down PCH and get to Malibu?
14:46PCH is Pacific Coast Highway, one of the most iconic coast roads in the world.
14:52I'm going every once in a while, driving down PCH, coming back, checking where the fire is.
14:58There's firefighters and police driving around into cul-de-sacs telling people they're going to die and they need to
15:04evacuate now.
15:05There's cars trying to evacuate, people parking in the middle of the street, abandoning their cars, bulldozers, literally bulldozing cars
15:12out of the road.
15:13It's like a zombie apocalypse.
15:18Halfway between Malibu and the Palisades Highlands lies Tuna Canyon and a small ranch owned by Nicholas Walker.
15:27We have a small farm.
15:29We have a small farm.
15:29So when I hear life-threatening winds, then what I try to do in my own little world is our
15:38fire protocol.
15:40When I choose to live my nature, I have to adopt her principles because she will always win.
15:47My wife said, do you think we should move the animals?
15:51And I said, yes, let's start that protocol.
15:54But I never thought that it would come up to us that quickly.
15:59The fast moving fire forces heartbreaking decisions.
16:04We couldn't load the llamas because the fire was too quick.
16:08We couldn't load the apacas, the sheep, the goats.
16:12These are part of a family, you know.
16:14So those are the animals we left.
16:16And I thought, I'm so sorry that I was not able to, you know, move you out of there.
16:26My black horse's name is Sovereignty.
16:28He was a rescue.
16:30He's what I call the ambassador of love.
16:33He's just perfect.
16:35We had to leave him because he did not want to load.
16:39You can't force load.
16:40He's 2,000 pounds and he has a lot of will.
16:44And it just makes me sad.
16:48Just reliving it again.
16:56So I wetted down the pasture and I just said a prayer.
17:02Using water from tanks, Nicholas prepares high-powered spray systems
17:07that he hopes will save his neighborhood.
17:11Now out of danger, Nani Nam fears the possible loss of her home.
17:17When my mom, she knew she was going to die.
17:20She said, make this house like a womb.
17:24So when I'm gone, when you come inside this house, you'll be safe.
17:28You'll be secure and you'll be loved no matter what.
17:31Yeah.
17:32Thank you so much.
17:33I got you, no problem.
17:36We got to her friend's house.
17:38I dropped Nani off with the dogs.
17:39She was okay, just really exhausted.
17:42It was a miracle.
17:43I felt blessed.
17:44Just grateful.
17:46Just grateful that I was alive.
17:48Grateful to Caleb that he was there.
17:51She would have passed out from a smoke inhalation before she got halfway down the hill.
17:55You know, because you can't even see anything or got hit by a trash can.
17:57I believe with all my heart that my mom sent him there.
18:04My mom sent him there to save me.
18:07That was my only hope that day.
18:10That was my only hope.
18:11Yep.
18:12That was my only hope.
18:16Above all to Dina, at Zorthian Ranch, Alan and his team are hoping for the best, but preparing for the
18:23worst.
18:25The fire, and every time it dropped in the valley, would burn its way a little higher.
18:30Drop down into the valley and just keep climbing a little higher.
18:33It was just breathing through the valley and making its way up and then coming over.
18:38One of the people who keeps his animals there decided to stay with me, and he brought four of his
18:43friends.
18:43I didn't ask them to, but they stayed up there with me.
18:46I knew it was at jeopardy.
18:47I knew all the consequences, and that's why I stood there, because I wanted to see it through.
18:51And I had my responsibility there, which were the animals.
18:53We're moving goats.
18:55We're helping the lower ranch move the donkey.
18:58We didn't move the sheep and the cows, because there were just so many.
19:02We were thinking, like, the fire is just going to burn everything around us if we keep this really moist.
19:07That was the idea, right?
19:09Alan had some gentlemen spraying some gel.
19:12They're spraying down this whole pasture.
19:15It was just too hot, and the wind was too fast.
19:20It was blowing so hard I had to brace myself to stand up.
19:24It was like a bellows that was something out of hell.
19:28Alan, he's not going to leave his ranch.
19:31You have to pry him from that to let it burn.
19:34Okay, here at the Zortin Ranch.
19:37It's getting later and later in the evening.
19:39It's coming up over the ridge this way around us.
19:43After soaking their home in the Palisades for three hours before evacuating, the Price family are finally taking a well
19:50-earned break.
19:51We sat the kids down and we felt like, okay, let's make things feel somewhat normal and have dinner.
19:57We had gotten the kids the things that were really important to us out.
20:02And so from that perspective, it was really time to just see what was going on and was there anything
20:07else that we could do.
20:09And when we turned on the news, we saw that the fire had already made it into town.
20:17We tried to check the ring system and we did not have power.
20:23So we were not able to see our home.
20:25We did have a fellow family member that had evacuated with us and they were able to check their ring
20:33cam.
20:34We saw the embers and the fire flying towards their home and then their power cut out.
20:41The ring went out and we never saw any more footage of their home.
20:44And David looked at me and he said, we have to go back.
20:55From his hilltop perch, Andy Tanglin can see the inferno spreading through Pacific Palisades.
21:02I did see a helicopter fly by.
21:06It was LA Fire Department and apparently it was the last aircraft to fly that night because they all were
21:14grounded due to high winds.
21:17That's the one that's going to start this whole valley on fire right there.
21:20I felt like we were now on our own.
21:25We had to do whatever we had to do to stay alive and save whatever we could save.
21:32It's coming over this hill too.
21:35To these houses over here.
21:37We had some fire fighter.
21:40Yeah, we got to water them down.
21:42Boy, the **** is coming.
21:46Then low water pressure becomes no water pressure.
21:53Once the water went out, we found some buckets and started using that to put out spot fires.
22:00With water from the swimming pool, the fountains and the ponds.
22:05We kept doing laps around the home throughout the night.
22:10Oh my God.
22:11Andy watches helplessly as a mansion below them is obliterated.
22:16That house over there is gone.
22:18And there are big houses, you know, there are mansions.
22:21Neighbors house on fire.
22:23The home above Tom Hanks that burnt was actually an open air mansion.
22:30So it was an $83 million home that was up for sale.
22:35And then the embers from that house lit up the next house.
22:41The embers are going to the neighbor's house.
22:43Look at all the embers on the neighbor's house.
22:45It was literally nothing we could do but watch it and stay where we were at to maintain the home
22:52that we were protecting.
22:54That's the road to drive out right there.
22:56We can't drive out now.
22:57It's on fire.
22:58While Andy and Vince put out embers, the fire encircles them.
23:03Oh, the embers are up here now.
23:05Look, Vince.
23:06We had safe zones on the property that we would go to if it got bad.
23:11As the night went on, it just started to burn around us.
23:15The flames are right there.
23:18Look, look.
23:20Oh, Vince.
23:21Across Los Angeles, ordinary people never asked to be heroes.
23:27Brace for the fight of their life.
23:30This is not the kind of city like we want to see.
23:33We shall see what happens.
23:40In 36 years as a firefighter, Rich Snyder never had to make a phone call like this.
23:46Is that Julie?
23:47Yes.
23:48Julie.
23:49We did everything.
23:51Everything.
23:53There's no fire engines.
23:55I am so sorry.
23:57It's heart wrenching.
23:58Firefighters don't like to lose and it's things that firefighters have to deal with.
24:03This time was different.
24:05Because it wasn't a stranger's house.
24:07It was Julie's house.
24:09And then Greg's house.
24:11And then Dave's house.
24:12Miss Lee's house.
24:13Eventually it was going to be my house.
24:15So it was personal.
24:17I think it's going to hit Lee's house too.
24:19Hopefully it doesn't go further now.
24:21We're waiting on some fire engines.
24:22So sorry.
24:24When you're going out on strike teams or even for house fires,
24:27you already start with your plan before you even get there.
24:30You know what you're going to do before you get there.
24:32I couldn't come up with a plan.
24:34I had scenarios and I ran them out.
24:38I've got this flipping wind at 100 miles an hour and fire blowing down the street.
24:45There was no way to win.
24:47But we did everything we could.
24:55The fire jumped from the pole to one of his neighbor's garage.
24:58I told one of the other guys, go and see if you can get in the garage.
25:03Well, by the time he went up there, the garage was going.
25:06And that's when the fire just went out of control.
25:12Oh, my house.
25:14Son of a bitch.
25:16In Pacific Palisades, Tracy and David Price drive home through a town they barely recognize.
25:24We bobbed and weaved around the blockades.
25:28And if one street was closed, we kind of made a left and went down another street.
25:33It was just mayhem.
25:38The town was absolutely crazy.
25:40It was like driving into a war zone.
25:42There was people and vehicles and things were all over the place, but nobody knew what they were doing.
25:51There was really no rhyme or reason to what any of the emergency crews were doing.
25:57We saw some homes in the Huntington Palisades area.
26:02Randomly, nothing would be burning around them.
26:05And then one of our friends, their home was completely engulfed in flames.
26:08They had a couple of fire trucks there trying to battle it, but it was futile.
26:14We actually saw a gentleman sitting in his driveway in a lawn chair.
26:20Drinking a beer and smoking a cigar, and he was looking up.
26:24Just watching the fire show.
26:26Like nothing was going on around him.
26:30We pulled up to the house and we went right back to where we were.
26:34We just kept watering and watering and watering with our backs to the wind,
26:38using the wind to blow the water where it needed to go.
26:41The winds were so strong at that point.
26:44Raining sheets of flames on us from the house behind us.
26:49And it wasn't just sort of on fire, it was engulfed.
26:52These embers were the size of charcoal briquettes.
26:56And they were flying through the air at 90 miles an hour.
27:00It was time to pack up and I had done all I could really do and I felt good.
27:04Whatever outcome was going to happen, I was good with it.
27:09We were able to make it back to the home where our family had evacuated.
27:15I remember getting into the shower and thinking, just please save my home, just please save my home, please save
27:23my home.
27:24Go do it, go help them. I'm going to keep embers here.
27:28In Altadena, Rich Snyder is locked into a desperate battle to save as many homes as possible.
27:35Hey Matt, I just want to make sure you're okay. I'm going to, we may be pulling out, send them.
27:41By this point, embers are blowing everywhere. He said, Matt, you okay?
27:45And I may not have been okay mentally, but physically I was going to stay there because I knew my
27:50Uncle Rich had my back.
27:52If you feel threatened, you just come out front and we'll go.
27:56I knew that if, if we left, there was going to, we were going to lose his house. So I
28:01didn't want to leave.
28:04Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be like him. My kingdom come and I will fall. The earth that
28:09is, is in heaven.
28:10And then I noticed up behind me that it had caught in a palm tree. Nothing is worse than a
28:16fire than when the palm fronds start taking off.
28:19Dead palms will catch on fire and in that kind of wind will send embers miles.
28:25Embers are going everywhere and I'm, I'm spraying the hose just trying to get as many as I can.
28:30And I see, you know, it was a different type of glow. It wasn't the glow from the fire. It
28:34was the glow from the lights of the fire engine.
28:38And I thought, Oh, thank God. At least there's an engine here. It came from 35 miles away.
28:45It's a welcome, welcome sight to say you have an engine because now you have access to real water.
28:53It had three people on it for two house fires, but it was a start.
28:58And the thing that gave me the most comfort was the understanding that they knew our neighborhood was on fire.
29:05So more help could come.
29:08In Tuna Canyon, Nicholas Walker is surrounded by fire and completely on his own.
29:15I went back and forth to the three houses checking if all the water was good.
29:21Everything was on fire.
29:23It was apocalyptic.
29:25What took me completely off guard was the hundred mile per hour gusts.
29:34Usually flames are vertical.
29:36This was horizontal.
29:39It was always a blow torch being pushed.
29:42When you have that kind of wind, you can't really direct water.
29:46So what I did is I put the nozzle straight up and the wind puts it on the house.
29:54I call it facing your reptilian self.
29:58And you kind of like, okay, it's me, myself, God.
30:04I do believe in God.
30:05And I just prayed and just kept doing what I did.
30:09The fire headed to Malibu.
30:11Because from my house, I could see Malibu Surfrider's Beach.
30:15So it was heading that way.
30:18In Malibu, Alec Gellis hopes to save his girlfriend's hilltop home.
30:23The fire's coming.
30:25I'm breaking out the hoses.
30:27We're getting it soaked down, soaking down her house.
30:32It's so overwhelming.
30:35It's moving through neighborhoods where I know dozens of people and houses are burning.
30:42Businesses are burning.
30:43The fire is now so close.
30:47She's freaking out.
30:48I have to take her to my place, drop her off.
30:50I come back.
30:51The cops have now barricaded the road to get back.
30:55There's nothing this police officer is going to tell me that's going to keep me from going
30:59back to do what I can to save this house.
31:02He's like, you're crazy.
31:04You're crazy.
31:05The firefighters already evacuated the area.
31:08I'm like, yeah, bro.
31:10We're crazy.
31:11I'm saving my girl's house.
31:14Tom, Tom, do you need any more help up there where you are?
31:16Get out of here.
31:17Go.
31:18Go.
31:18Leave.
31:18Leave now.
31:20Get in your car.
31:21One of my neighbors who's elderly and has some mild cognitive issues going on, I knew
31:25he wasn't going to completely understand what I was saying.
31:28And he did keep wanting to go back into the house.
31:32Go.
31:33Get out of here.
31:34I caught him coming out the front door.
31:36He just didn't understand the severity of it.
31:38Get in your car and leave.
31:39Leave.
31:40I went back out to the street and that neighbor was standing on the other side of the street
31:45watching the house burn.
31:46Get in your car and leave.
31:48I was not nice about it.
31:50And so he walked away.
31:51And we went back on trying to protect the houses.
31:54So you got this house yet?
31:56A little while later.
31:57Okay.
31:57His garage is on fire.
31:58Oh, his house is on fire.
32:00And now his car is on.
32:02His car.
32:04He didn't leave.
32:05Go.
32:06Go.
32:07Go.
32:08Go.
32:30He didn't leave.
32:32And so I ran up to the door.
32:34Go.
32:35Oh.
32:36Come.
32:37Come here.
32:39Come with me.
32:40No, no.
32:41You have to come with me.
32:45Come with me.
32:45And he said no, no, and he started yelling.
32:48He just didn't understand.
32:49So I physically grabbed his sweatshirt,
32:51and I was pulling him across his lawn.
32:53And the lawn, there's just fire and embers.
32:56And I'm yelling.
32:57I see a police officer, and I started yelling, help, help.
33:00Hey, kid, help, help.
33:03Hey.
33:04She couldn't hear me because of the wind.
33:07My garage is on fire.
33:09I know, I know.
33:09There's nothing we can do.
33:11There's nothing we can do.
33:13Yeah.
33:13We need to get him out of here.
33:15Hey, wait, I'll go.
33:16I'll get in my car.
33:18I need the closest vehicle.
33:19I need to get my...
33:20I need the closest vehicle and put him in it and take him out.
33:22Let's get him in your house.
33:23Well, wait, Richard, can I get in my car and go?
33:25No, your car is on fire.
33:27No.
33:27Let's get a car and get him out of here.
33:29Put him in our van and drive him out.
33:32Get him in the van and get him out of here.
33:36You have to get him out of here.
33:39Put him in the front seat of the van and drive him away.
33:41Okay, copy that.
33:43I'm driving my home.
33:45I know.
33:45I told you a while ago that we had to get out.
33:47Oh, God.
33:48We're going to try to get out.
33:49Put the garage out.
33:50What's that?
33:51Put the garage out.
33:52Here comes the fire, Richard.
33:54Here comes the fire.
33:55You find the vehicle, throw him in the vehicle.
33:57One of the other firefighters kept him from going back in.
34:06Eventually, his house was destroyed.
34:11In the Santa Monica Mountains, on a hilltop overlooking Pacific Palisades,
34:16the long night continues for Andy Tangelin and his buddy Vince.
34:21There goes the gate.
34:22The gate is on fire.
34:24If you've ever seen a green hedges burn, it's literally like a flare.
34:35Holy shit.
34:41I love that thing.
34:43The vehicle is so epic.
34:45The worst is the wood chip mulch.
34:48Don't put wood chip mulch on your house or property because it's the fire starter.
34:54If you can't run with a five-gallon bucket of water, it's so heavy, our legs are gone.
35:00You know, and we just, we're running on adrenaline all night.
35:02That's what kept us going.
35:04So we literally was like a team.
35:07There we go.
35:08I got them out.
35:10In Altadena, the flames finally reach Zorthian Ranch.
35:14I think it was about 3 a.m.
35:17Flames come down that ridge.
35:20That's coming real close here.
35:23Then big flashes of light.
35:25And I thought our house that's on that ridge is certainly gone.
35:30And then we watched it envelop our lower property.
35:34It came up the canyon very quickly.
35:37So, uh, that's just on the other side of the ridge there.
35:40Oh, boy.
35:42Lord help us.
35:43We were putting fire retardant on everything that we could, pulling hoses.
35:47It was dark.
35:48It was nasty.
35:49It was windy.
35:50And it was everywhere.
35:52Yeah, this is not looking real good here.
35:55I started pushing a lot of sheep and, and moving sheep here and there.
36:00And Alan always had in his mind, where would be the safest place?
36:03In the center of that corral.
36:05It's just sand.
36:06That's the safest place.
36:08We had two cows and we had a number of goats and sheep.
36:12And those we left in the corral out in the middle of the upper ranch.
36:17About that time, we noticed that the water was shut off from the water company.
36:23So we had no water.
36:25We did have a pool pump.
36:26So we were able to get water from our pool and attach it to a fire hose.
36:31And we were able to fight that fire and stop it from hitting this one house we had under construction.
36:36It was burning the whole canyon in front of us, but it wasn't hitting the house.
36:40The hose wouldn't reach where I was starting to see little fires.
36:43I didn't have enough hose.
36:45And then there was this blue plastic hose that I thought I could connect it.
36:48And I'm trying to connect it with the water running.
36:51And then the water's getting all over me.
36:52In the meantime, the little fires are turning into bigger fires.
36:56And, you know, I was able to get some water on it, but it was just not enough.
37:01And then the water did stop from the pool.
37:04I believe that the pool pump stopped working because the hose burned.
37:07So there was no way I could stop the flames at that point.
37:13And they were getting kind of concerned that it was going to be too dangerous to stay up there.
37:18Now I'm forcing everybody to go.
37:20And there's one guy, Thomas, who stayed up there.
37:24Thomas did not leave.
37:25I'm here, everyone's just about to go down.
37:30And I'm going to go ahead and count after it passes.
37:33So I'm wishing everybody all good things.
37:37I knew what I was doing no matter what.
37:40I was literally giving them notice.
37:42Like, I'm of sound mind.
37:44I know what I'm doing.
37:45Don't be concerned for me.
37:46You go away.
37:47I've already made arrangements.
37:49I'll be in the crowd with the animals.
37:51I've got my sheep.
37:54We didn't get these ones evacuated.
37:56We went down the road and left.
37:59I didn't stay in the corral because I'm an animal activist.
38:04I stood in the corral because I know those animals.
38:09I cared for them every day, like giving water and picking up their poop.
38:14I'll be under the bend here in a sleeping bag.
38:20I've got my water hose here.
38:21So I'll hang out as long as I can to protect these little guys.
38:25And see what happens.
38:26Hopefully it just blows over.
38:27I'm grateful the will's in place.
38:29You know what I mean?
38:36Across the street from my uncle's house.
38:42Three doors down.
38:44For the house now, you can still kind of see the blades.
38:48We're lucky to have trucks on the street.
38:54Retired fire chief Steve Heidorf spots a new danger in the home of Rich's next-door neighbor.
39:00You can just see the embers coming up against the house,
39:03and you know you're getting ember intrusion into the attic.
39:07Matt, watch for embers getting inside here.
39:10You know, keep an eye there behind the garage.
39:11A little fire's starting.
39:12But Steve has an even more pressing concern.
39:16I called my wife, and she explained to me that they were getting evacuated,
39:19and could I please come home very, very quickly?
39:23The fire guys stayed as long as they could until two of them got phone calls.
39:27They had to evacuate their homes.
39:28So they had to leave.
39:31So I went up to the Pasadena engine, and I know those guys.
39:34I said, I need a pipe pole.
39:36And he opened the cabinet.
39:37I grabbed a pipe pole.
39:39Pipe pole is what they use for tearing down ceilings, putting holes in ceilings.
39:43I yelled for my nephew.
39:45We met at the front door.
39:46And he kicks the door open.
39:48It's just complete.
39:49It's pitch black in there.
39:50I see my neighbor's house for the first time.
39:52He just moved in six months earlier.
39:55He puts a hole in the ceiling, and he's like, go grab that hose that's outside.
39:59I took the hose.
40:00I opened up the nozzle, started squirting water into the attic, and told my nephew.
40:04Go into the kitchen and start putting some holes in that ceiling.
40:07He's not a firefighter.
40:08He's my nephew.
40:09He started pulling, and this fire's rolling in the attic, and I started hitting it with the hose.
40:15I come back out from the kitchen.
40:16He said, Matt, we just saved this house.
40:23We put out an attic fire and saved my neighbor's house.
40:26It felt so gratifying.
40:28I was like, Rich, I think I missed my calling.
40:30And he says, Matt, you were gassed after two minutes.
40:35I was wearing a baseball hat, tennis shoes, and jeans.
40:38So was my nephew.
40:40And in hindsight, it was a really stupid thing to do.
40:43Now, I did it based on instinct and experience, but I also did it with adrenaline and seeing
40:55houses burned down.
40:56I didn't want to see another house burned down.
41:00We didn't have a full strike team of engines until about 3 o'clock in the morning.
41:06And they were from Bakersfield, Big Bear, so they'd come from a long way.
41:12That was the first time when we kind of looked around, and it's going to be okay.
41:20In Malibu, the Palisades fire closes in on Alec Gellis and the home of his girlfriend.
41:26I've never seen wind this strong.
41:29It seemed like it was unstoppable.
41:31We spent two hours soaking the house down, drenching it.
41:35Ten minutes later, it's dry.
41:37It's like a storm of embers, like hornets that are on fire, stinging me.
41:43We weren't prepared with the respirators.
41:45All I had was an N95.
41:46I had some goggles.
41:48I had some glasses.
41:49I had a hat.
41:50And I'm putting out the fires.
41:52Every single direction I look is fire.
41:56It's like the atmosphere's on fire.
41:58It's like another planet.
41:59It's like I'm on a fire planet.
42:01There's fire up against the house.
42:03What am I going to do?
42:04In the Xorthian Ranch corral, Thomas has retreated to his makeshift shelter, surrounded by animals and flames.
42:14I did get under a cast-iron bathtub with a sleeping bag and a pillow.
42:17I got myself under this container, but it was cracked open.
42:20I was able to speak to them.
42:21Okay, I'm in my little container here.
42:24In the bathtub.
42:26It looks like the flames are going across there.
42:32Quarks are flying in.
42:36And it's like you're in a coffin.
42:38But hopefully it passes soon.
42:40The whole key to this was having the bull hear my voice and let him know that everything's okay.
42:48Everything's okay.
42:48So as long as the bull stayed calm through just resonating, no matter what's going on, I knew we were
42:56going to be okay.
42:58I was grateful that I was still in the game.
43:02Because I was looking at death in that barrel.
43:05Very crazy.
43:08I hope this passes soon.
43:10It's getting pretty fast and furious.
43:14Hey, Shepard going down with his block.
43:16I jumped out of that barrel.
43:17And that's when I got my senses about me.
43:21But yeah, there goes the gift shop.
43:25Just as long as we keep the fire away from us.
43:28I was in a bathtub under there.
43:29Yeah, a little smoky.
43:31And then it made more sense to get here.
43:33Some of these guys got a little bit of burns on the back.
43:37A little temper.
43:38When the fiery embers hit the sheep's wool, it would start like this little smoldering red little inferno on them.
43:47And I would go back and douse them out.
43:49Because I just, that was the thing to do.
43:52And then you got this bull and they're just like looking at the whole thing.
43:55And everyone's crowded around them.
43:56And I knew the meaning of what it meant for me to be alive.
44:00Good sound of my voice, guys.
44:01We're good.
44:02Oh, I'm going to get through it, okay?
44:05Right here with you.
44:05It's almost like, is that all you got?
44:08You know, like one of those moments.
44:11Yep.
44:12We're holding a hike.
44:14There's a whole lot of stuff going up right now.
44:18Thomas makes a heroic last stand.
44:21In a few short hours, hundreds of Altadena residents will do the same.
44:26This is the Sheriff's Department.
44:29The fire is coming.
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