The Pacific Palisades house that 65-year old local resident John Carr lives in was passed down to him by his parents. And it's one of just a handful of properties that's still standing, after the Palisades wildfire ripped through the neighborhood this week, leaving the community virtually unrecognizable.
"The house was built by my mother and father in 1960 and I lived here my whole life so there's a lot of memories here and I think I owed it to them as well to try my best to save it," he said.
The 65 year old told Reuters he’s never witnessed anything like the blaze that ravaged his neighborhood on Tuesday (January 7). Armed with his organizational skills, his history of being a pilot and past fire experiences, Carr decided to ignore evacuation, hunker down and fight fire with water as he doused his home in an attempt to save the lasting memories of his parents.
"Some things in life are worth fighting for, you know. If I were to lose this house, it would be very difficult to afford to build a new house, to pay the enormous property taxes they have here. What would I do?," he said.
As the fire began to encroach on his backyard Carr said he sprang into action, jumping fences to tackle spot fires from all directions using his hose, not only on the flames but also himself.
"I was awake all night, all day. I got a little bit of sleep after things calmed down a little bit, after all the houses all burned down. I did probably hurt a rib jumping a fence over there."
He only wishes the Los Angeles Fire Department put in the same effort as he did.
Carr said "If they had had some fire trucks and just put a squirt here, a squirt there and kept an eye on things, all these houses would be here now. I'm telling you right now. I saw it with my own eyeballs. All these houses. The houses behind me they're all gone. They started with one little spark, one little small fire. They just squirted those out, had a few people out there, they'd all be here now."
After saving his house, does he think he was brave or reckless?
"Well, you know, I'll leave that to other people to decide. I did what I needed to do, I did what I wanted to do, I did what I thought I could do and that's what I did," he said.
To his neighbors, Carr is a hero.
"Oh, actually they've been very gracious. The neighbor over here thanked me for saving his house and the neighbor over here thanked me. So, you know, thanks is plenty."