John Carr, 65, of Pacific Palisades, saved his family’s home, as well as two of his neighbors’ homes, from being engulfed by wildfire flames last week.
Carr, a former pilot and current medical equipment manufacturer, was at work when he heard about the Sunset Fire near his neighborhood, so he headed home and began to prepare.
“The fire possibility in California has always been something that’s been on my mind that was a possibility,” Carr told Fox News Digital. “There are… some precautions I’ve taken in the past — thought about what I would do if a fire came through.”
His mother and father built the home in 1960.
When he saw the flames begin to reach his neighborhood at night, he “made the decision” that he “had a decent chance of fighting it off,” he said.
“The heat got incredibly intense and melted the frames of the sliding doors on the house. I had to soak myself in water to take the heat,” Carr explained.
After fighting off some flames nearing his own property using his garden hose, Carr then went to stop some blazes threatening his neighbors’ homes on either side of his property using the same hose.
“Basically, it comes down to nipping it in the bud,” Carr said.
There were no firefighters in his neighborhood at the time — Carr suspects because they were occupied with fires in other areas.
“I prayed to God to give me strength and insight with what to do. … I can’t give it any other explanation. Somebody was maybe helping me up there. I don’t know,” he said.
Carr also described seeing some nearby McMansions that went up in “a huge wall of flames” and “intense heat” when the Santa Ana winds came through the area, saying the sight was nothing like he’s ever experienced before.
“I was standing at one end of my house and it was like I was in a fire cyclone,” he said.
Firefighters were able to contain the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills last week. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
