Firefighter Grant Nunom escaped a 60-hour shift fighting glass fires in Northern California when he learned his girlfriend’s parents’ house was on fire. He decided to go to save himself.
Alice Jones was spotted by security cameras on Sunday night as Nunom, 34, worked to contain the fire.
“You can see the wrist flying in the wind and all over the place,” Jones said. “You’re right, ‘Yes, it’s a flame. My mom was crying a lot. She was very worried for him. “
The family of her two children, parents and brother witnessed the pneumonia struggle to fight the raging flames and stubborn winds.
For hours, Nunom fought to contain the fire that was threatening the house. He was joined by four firefighters from the Santa Rosa department.
“I’m just around the house and putting a fork on the roof because it’s just blowing the strip of the house, and they’re bouncing outside the house, bouncing off the roof, bouncing everywhere,” Nunome said. “And there were a lot of times during the burn like I am, wow, OK, we could lose this thing.”
The house was surrounded “around 360 degrees” by flames, Jones said. But Nunom and four other Santa Rosa firefighters were not harmed.
Once the house was considered safe, other firefighters were left and the remaining flames were placed along the Phnom Penh garden hose. Nunom jokingly said, “An operation is very slow.
Jones (, 35), was at his parents’ home earlier that day when he received a text of relocation. Nunom urged him to take her seriously, so they moved out of the line of fire to her brother’s house.
Blaze was known as Shadia Fire when he threatened the house on Sunday, but then it merged with the Glass Fire, which ignited overnight in the Napa Valley and burned vineyards, resorts and homes. It has grown on about 60,000 acres and has destroyed more than 250 buildings and damaged a further 144.
More than 20 firings are being witnessed in the state.
Since the start of the unprecedented fire season, 30 people have died in fires across the state.
California has seen the largest forest fire in state history and burned more than 7.7 million acres across the state, much of it recorded in Northern California, which recorded its driest winter on record.
Jones feels lucky that his parents’ house survived and he had to watch the fight to save him alive on security cameras.
“It wasn’t very, very peaceful, but it was helpful to be able to see what was going on and get answers almost immediately,” he said.
