Brain Surgeon Saves His LA Neighborhood From Fires

For the last 15 years, Dr. Chester Griffiths, a 62-year-old brain surgeon from Malibu, California, and his neighbor Clayton Colbert have been preparing for the day they would need to act to save their homes from a wildfire. They live on a cul de sac with their backyards touch the ocean. "So we knew there was only one way for the fire to get to us which was a huge advantage that we should waste on that day". That day came when the Palisades fire erupted and started gobbling neighborhoods.

The Doctor heard about the fire just as he was about to begin a brain surgery. "Obviously I couldn't leave at that moment but called my son to make sure they were preparing. I did the surgery in about 2 hours and then took off for home. The drive home was heartbreaking as I could see the houses were already coming down like dominoes"

Relying on the plan and equipment they had developed over the years, the group connected 4 fire hoses they had bought years ago to hydrants and climbed onto roofs to spray water on the advancing flames. They knew water would also be at a premium so they also had lots of dirt to put out embers as they landed on their lawns.

For 12-hour straight hours, they battled the fire and held it at bay. Then they would have 1 stay awake while the other 2 tried to get some sleep and when the fires advanced again the watcher would wake the other 2 and they'd get back to fire fighting. The 3 did it with N-95 masks and shovels with their fire hoses for 5 nights. The scariest night was Wednesday while they are trying to stand on their roofs with the 80 mph winds shooting football sized embers at them. A neighbors house was completely engulfed within 20 minutes and was so hot their eucalyptus trees exploded. Then the next house next to them went up “like a Roman candle” They did consider using their escape plan which was paddle boards in the ocean behind their house, but all agreed they could still win this fight.

The Doc said "I knew when the big fire finally hit, there would be no way for a Fire Dept to protect all of these houses and buildings so they would have to sacrifice them hoping to contain the fire from spreading. So Clayton and my son developed this plan on how we could save our homes on our own. They ended up saving several other homes in the cul-de-sac. On top of that they set up patrols to safeguard their neighborhood from the eventual looters.


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