California wildfire survivor shares story of narrowly saving his own house from Eaton Fire: 'A miracle'
A survivor of the devastating Eaton Fire that devastated the Altadena area of Los Angeles County recently spoke up about his experience fighting the inferno.
Justin Christie, a resident of Altadena, spoke with Fox News Digital on Saturday afternoon about his experience. As of Saturday evening, the Eaton Fire, which began on Tuesday, is only 15% contained.
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've seen] tons of fires on this hillside," Christie recalled. "When I saw this, when I came out in the street and I saw the flames up on the hillside, something just told me this was different."
"I really got frightened, and I started to think [about] what I needed to do to prepare for it."
Christie said that he was especially alarmed after seeing one of his palm trees catch on fire, which had never happened before. He quickly got all of his family members into his car and drove them away from the scene.
"I've never, in all the fires, never had one of our trees catch on fire," he said. "And that was the one that really said, okay…we're in big trouble."
Christie later drove by to check on the status of his house – when he realized no one was going to extinguish the fire on his palm tree, Christie decided to put matters into his own hands and fight the fire himself.
"I thought my house, many times, was going to go," he recalled. "From 8 in the evening to 12 o'clock noon. This house here, that burned next to me, was the last one that was to put me in danger."
"When that one finally calmed down…I had a little sense of relief."
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But Christie said that that sense of relief was short-lived before another neighbor of his suffered a fire in their garage. Though Christie's house was unscathed from that fire, the resident described the whole situation as "just shocking."
"It's heartbreaking. It's just enough to make you want to cry," Christie said. "So many people just lost everything."
"And I never, ever thought….we've been here for so long…I always thought we were just far enough out of the fire's reach."
When thinking back to the experience, Christie described the sounds and sights of the wildfires as "incredible."
"The breaking glass, the explosions from gas lines, people's propane tanks, cars catching on fire," he vividly described. "It just sounded like several freight trains coming at you."
Overall, Christie said that his house's survival from the Eaton Fire was nothing short of a miracle.
"It was some miracle that I got a hold of the fire…the wind died down at one opportune time," he said. "And if it hadn't….it would have caught this trellis I have next to me, it would have caught my house on fire and I would have been done. And there were several times when I wanted to leave, but I didn't. I stayed.
"If I had left, the house would be gone. Totally gone."