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Man Battles California Wildfires Alone And Saves Home
October 23, 2017

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Reid had expected a wall of fire, but instead, he found himself facing eddies and swirls of flames that constantly shifted as the gust of winds picked up and died down.

Reid admits that the intensity of the inferno-like conditions was much more prolonged that he had been expecting. As he explains, sparks and hot gases would appear from all sides, disappearing for a time, but then reappearing from different angles. At one point, hot gases singed his eyebrows.

Reid spent much of his time cutting down smoldering trees in order to try and stop them from spreading the flames. He went around at night with a flashlight trying to determine which ones needed to be felled. He was often amazed that wood, which seemed like it would be very hard to burn, had in fact ignited.

Reid describes his efforts as simply “doing what you can” and he refuses to pat himself on the back. Yet, he managed to do something extraordinary — he saved his home while every one of the 11 other homes in the neighborhood perished.

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