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How One Man Saved His Home While Firefighters Watched...And He's Still Homeless
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Mar 18, 2025
š„ āImagine waking up to the sound of fire ripping through your neighborhood. You have no fire truck, no firefighters helpingājust two garden hoses and a choice: runā¦ or fight.ā š„ šØ Albert āDinkyā Sanders chose to fight. For 15 hours, he battled the flames alone to save his familyās home, while everything around him burned. But what happened next? It wasnāt just the fire that threatened his futureāit was what came after the flames died down. š No FEMA help. No landlord support. No clear path home. ā ļø This isnāt just a story about survivalāitās about injustice, resilience, and the fight to keep a historic Black community from being erased. š Dinky shocking details to @ChuckCreekmur in this exclusive interview. š Watch this full interview now. You need to hear his story and support Dinky and his family. Cash app:$dinkzero Venmo: Albert-Sanders-23 Zelle: [email protected] š„ Donāt just watchāSHARE. The fight to save Altadena isnāt over. š„ Subscribe to AllHipHop on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/allhiphoptv?sub_confirmation=1 Check out more of AHH here on social media:
View Video Transcript
0:06
[Music] all it's Chuck creeker AKA jigsaw all hip hop is here in pad Dean at a benefit
0:14
for those that were displaced um and and affected by the wildfires so tell me
0:20
your name a little bit tell me a little bit about yourself uh my name is Albert uh
0:25
Sanders um everybody knows me as dinky okay um AKA my mom gave me that nickname
0:32
as well so it stuck with me all my life um I'll be uh 43 this year um I'm aladen
0:39
Pasadena uh Native um been here all my life um traveled a lot of places um um done a
0:47
lot of different work mental health work um uh Wildland firefighting training um
0:52
a cook um photography um all the way to uh uh
0:59
fashion uh branding uh clothing brands um I'm working with uh certain producers
1:05
in the music industry as well okay so you you mentioned something real quick you said you said you do you have
1:12
training in Wildlife wild fires yeah Wildland firefighting um it's a
1:17
coincidence uh last summer um I was working uh for a nonprofit organization
1:23
that does uh conservation um Wildland conservation um um um Environmental restoration and
1:30
stuff okay um and through that program um they had a Wildland firefighting training and I was able to have the
1:37
opportunity to partake in the class and uh get my credentials for that as well
1:43
okay well that's that's that's very uh I guess timely and and and and really
1:49
helped you out um in this situation so just talking off the top um can you tell
1:56
us a little bit about this area you know I've never been here before okay and I just you know just driving up I'm
2:02
looking and from Los Angeles to here that you just see the Landscapes changing yeah as you come through um my
2:10
observation is seems like a nice place um to me people are nice people speak to
2:18
you and stuff um very looks nice you know it just looks like a nice place to live um Altera can you tell us about
2:26
that and maybe Pasad Dina too uh yeah uh just like as you said um that City of
2:32
aladen Pasadena um I mean you see we're on the outskirts of downtown LA literally 15 minutes from downtown LA um
2:40
as you it's it's loving welcoming um it's always been like that um Time Has
2:45
Changed um um in the 90s 80s it was all but you know majority blacks uh Pro more
2:53
blacks than than today yeah um but aladen um real peaceful um um small city
3:01
um part of LA County um we have everything we need uh you know from
3:07
grocery stores to the malls um um our own community stores um private owned
3:13
stores you know blackowned businesses and um you know the good stuff that's supposed to be in our community um been
3:21
in Alena like I said 42 years I'll be 43 this year um um like any city of it's
3:29
it's ups and downs um it's always some racial profiling um but the good always
3:35
outweigh the bad um so I mean it's not about that right now but um it's it's it
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like I said the good outweighs the bad um I can never say that um out Dina or Pasad Dina is um a city like oh no you
3:49
don't want to go there or you you don't want to raise your family there or or um
3:54
that you know this this area is is a little more racial profiling than this area like it's it's never been that I
4:01
mean you give you're run into some kind of hiccups but um other than that there's like no place that you really
4:08
cannot go to and feel safe or feel comfortable yeah yeah okay so let's talk
4:14
about the uh the fires a little bit um it's our understanding that it impacted
4:22
a wide variety of people yes and that this particular um Place Altadena is is
4:30
mostly black and has maybe not been getting supported as much as some of the
4:36
other places is that accurate or uh being a a part of this you know unknown
4:43
out of the nowhere situation yes um I feel that um some of the resources that
4:50
they have been offering us has been helpful um but very
4:55
unorganized um cuz it's a lot of people was able to you know create fake IDs and
5:02
and use other people's addresses and stuff to to partake in the resources for the people that actually U needs it um
5:11
um I have to say from my own personal experience um uh FEMA has been putting
5:16
me on the back burner um me and my family um they're put putting misinformation in uh uh this
5:25
information on my case File and stuff um that's annoyingly that I know I didn't um volunteer to share um so um it's like I
5:33
said it's it's some of the resources are good are on point but some is a is a
5:39
huge delay um a major inconvenience um because I for myself um I'm still
5:44
waiting me and my family haven't received we received a a credit of uh
5:50
from the Airbnb um for, 1300 that was the first week of the fire that happened
5:56
um we used that but they never reached out to me to extend the credit and we're giving extensions for uh for most of the
6:04
families um some families got it and and like myself some families didn't get it you know they kept saying um uh you know
6:11
call back or uh this is in the process of happening between them and the Hilton
6:16
um I called another time they told me to call Hiltons individually and um I called four
6:22
different Hiltons and none of them was participating in the program right um so
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um my guys you know it it didn't leave us in a pickle but I mean uh we was best
6:33
finan you know with financial help to be able to um like one of the main things is our stand our Airbnb or um you know
6:41
our hotel stay and so that that's the only inconvenience but um the help is
6:46
there but it's it's just taking it's taken a lot of time it's like I said it's a lot of unnecessary hiccups and um
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like I said now we're we're a month in and um we haven't received anything yeah
6:59
but a credit for one week of Airbnb and like I said now that week was three weeks ago right and um it's kind of hard
7:06
coming out your own personal money to when you got so much of it and I would
7:11
say um that that's the only hiccup um like I said then for some events um you know they they tell people that they're
7:18
going to have a certain resource and um then they don't have it or you know the
7:23
people that came earlier that you know they do a lot of you know butting and cutting just doing just just un it's
7:29
just unnecessary stuff to just get what you know part of the resource and um and
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then these the people that don't even live around area um so um that makes it
7:40
difficult um that's the hiccups but we have received help and like I said any help it does help so they they are
7:46
helping but uh more could be done for sure yeah yeah um what about the
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uh some folks have benefited like through GoFundMe or things like that um
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Community sources of money have have any of those things helped or have you tried that uh yes that they have the uh the
8:08
Fire Relief um uh the firefighters has been um um been having uh it's been
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about two weeks that had be three days out of the week that they would have a um event where they giving out $250 gift
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cards yeah um but the only thing with that is limited one person per family oh okay and um I say I mean um you know a
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single night um at a room is over $100 yeah um food uh you know I got my
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parents so they're they're old school really you know setting their ways and stuff which is cool you know some people
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don't adapt to the you know with new or certain new uh um you know circumstances
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and stuff which is fine you know um but my parents is picky so having to use
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that between the rooms and and getting food and you know for the three of us with the deliveries um we have received
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U a $200 gift card um from Uber Eats as
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well okay and um the gift card didn't work um it gave a message and said that
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all the codes were used and um that's something you know I was like you know
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and I tried to contact them and I I sent them a message on uh Instagram and you know wondering like how could you know
9:21
you giving out individual codes to families that's only can only be used by
9:27
the person or the family that it's given to right and I'm like well how can somebody use a code that was given to me
9:33
and and and so that was $200 so like I said so some days um the gift cards are
9:39
beneficial but like I said $250 is yeah it's gone in one day between meals for
9:46
my parents and helping extend our stay uh between the Airbnb and the hotel room
9:52
yeah how are you mentally how are you all dealing with this like from a mental aspect like that are you traumatized are
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you getting you know help in that regard um for a minute I I didn't realize I was
10:06
affected by it mentally um I fought the uh like I said the fire started at 3:00
10:11
a.m. um well it start at 3: am. we noticed the Amber started coming um in
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our in our area around 3:00 a.m. um and I kicked in the gear around three I
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stayed and fought the fire yeah um my parents left um I ended up fighting the
10:29
fire for 15 hours um by myself and um mentally three different times out of
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that 15 hours I broke down yeah um and after that I would one of my buddies
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would pick me up and he'll start to Fire and and I hear a pop or smell the smoke and just my my senses just kick up
10:48
different like and it wasn't like in a fear but it's just like like damn like again like so I believe that I never
10:56
experienced that before and I realized that and I do believe that that is a part of a you know you know a mental
11:04
impact yeah on on myself and and uh you know with my parents um definitely
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seeing them as I said we've been there 40 plus years they never been in nothing like this in their life so and um you
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know watching them be as strong as possible and me having to keep myself together to keep them together and and
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you know cuz you know stuff happens you know with families nobody's been through this different emotions and so I believe
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um yeah it played a a a definitely part of my my mental state yeah um now that
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was 3 weeks ago in the beginning um this the second week um into the new month or going into the new month um my mentally
11:44
is is a lot better it's a lot better okay a lot more a lot more stable wasn't resting good and um wasn't definitely
11:52
wasn't eating right and um so yeah but uh this week was l b as you can see I ain't had no
11:59
hair cut um I smoked it out man the smoke smoked it out and so um um hopefully
12:06
soon I get this cleaned up but as you see but U getting better yeah getting a lot better than before for sure um what
12:13
about the houses around you said you saved your home but what's what about the places around uh the two neighbors
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to the to the left and right side of me um I was able to preserve the halves um
12:27
of of the side of the house that you know I was able B to get to um the ambers um did definitely ignited certain
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parts of excuse me of the property um by God's grace um like I said I'm all over
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the uh from from the front yard to the backyard two long water hoses yeah and um I was able to maintain the part I can
12:48
control yeah which save uh my my one neighbor's house which cuz they left um
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by God's grace it you know it didn't jump over to the other side of the house my other neighbor um on the other side
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of me um he took got his family out um on time and stuff and he actually came
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back and saw what I was doing cuz the fire had ignited in his front yard so but my hose was able to reach from
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between the front yard and to the backyard and his back shed caught on fire uh three different times and that
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process is well and um and it was
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uh I it seems easy like like talking about it now but it was no it seems it seems like
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a a lot bro it was it was it was it wasn't easy uher my hand my hand was
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cramped up and I kind of I think I sprung my finger and stuff and um but um by God's grace um I was able
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to like I said through the strength and power I was able to keep their part of the property along with mine under
13:55
control and like I said my my one neighbor that took his family out um he left and came back and seeing what I was
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doing he was able to uh get his water hose and save his half of the property because the house next to his property
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is is literally going up and smokes like right in front of us so wow um by God's grace I was able to help save the
14:17
neighbor's property as well yeah do you feel like a hero cuz you sound like a hero to me I mean I believe you to be
14:23
one I don't feel like a hero no yeah n i um um I mean for the sake like I said
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we've been living there 41 years um um we never owned the house uh we've been
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written and my my mom is friends with uh the Lor's uh wife rest that rest in
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peace okay and um I don't feel like a hero cuz um I know some neighbors and I
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know other people that's in the neighborhood that was doing the same thing I was doing and they either
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couldn't control it and or they um um you know same thing like I said I broke
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down three different times and was ready to leave and just abandon or like the unfortunately for some people they lost
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their lives yeah and um I just uh I just I don't take I don't know I don't like I
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said I don't feel like a hero um I just I don't know I guess I was just trying to do the right thing right um that's
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and yeah um my hero I I would put that credit to those people that lost their
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lives like and I know that lost their lives and lost their homes trying to I would call them the heroes and myself
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yeah yeah well I applaud your efforts for real yeah yeah I definitely do I I do know people that lost their lives and
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I know from no one knows what you'll do in that position no one knows if you're
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going to make it or not so you know anyway I applaud your efforts definitely
15:52
thank you um What What In what ways can people support you um you know when this
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goes live people will see it in my effort here is to help folks become more
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aware and also to Route perhaps funds or support to you um or your family or and
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other families too um is there a way for people to do that
16:20
uh yes uh uh I have a gofund me um set up I know some people uh has reached out
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to me and um and they haven't sent nothing to my my cash app or my my zel
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but some people don't trust the GoFundMe but I do have a GoFundMe okay um going um it's it's it's slowly going it's not
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um it's not where I expected it to be um but I do have a goof me I have a Veno I
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have zel and I have cash app so what would you want you know in closing I
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guess what's the takeaway here uh for you um there's a lot to for me it's a
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lot you know I'm like man this this one Community is affected this black community I know folks in the hills and
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stuff that were affected too yes but this particular Community feels like it's a piece of history and also
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honestly it feels like maybe some folks won't come back maybe some folks won't
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be able to rebuild and then some some other people might come in and and build there when folks black
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folks don't come back you know what I mean that's something that I feel vested in myself okay um what would be your
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messaging to people um to to to you know what would you tell the
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the the nation or the world uh I would say just for the nation I know some people haven't experienced this um so
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it's very different to understand um I've seen national disasters and certain stuff on the news about communities and
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I be like dang why you know how and um um could this happen or you know what's
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the best way to for these people to get help and um for me um and like for
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anybody uh just people needs help U financially yeah um that's number one
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um um it's some people um and until like I said until it hit me um I never knew
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actually what something like this feels like yeah um we had been through earthquakes had fires up here before and
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um tornadoes and all kind of little stuff and um but we never been in a
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national disaster like right and um and to experience this and just you know to
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see and it's like dang we like we really need like you know in these matters is
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financial you know um uh people can help just by you know even if it's a dollar
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you know um and for anybody not just out then the um if anybody is in some type of
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national disaster or the best thing to do is send a dollar yeah um that's the best way it's going to help somebody out
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or um I know organizations are iffy and but if you get personal with someone um
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or you feeling your heart yeah just that that definitely is is a major contribute
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to helping people out like myself and positions like this like so you you talked a little bit about your fire
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training but um you know dealing with um the understanding
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of preferences and racism and and all these things um you fought for your home
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and saved it but most people's houses were burning down can you talk about the experiences of dealing with firefighters
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or seeing how they moved in in the community uh sure yep
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uh well the first uh responders to show up when when um when I was fighting you
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know doing my thing with the house by myself uh fighting the fire um calire
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showed up I'm not sure which um um which actual Branch part of calfire but it was
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a calfire patrol pulled up okay um uh no red engines um they were they were all
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like I said under under the calire um umbrella um they came
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um uh experience was it was it was I'm going say not the best um
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I'mma say uh not too much caring um I had a few experiences while
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I was putting out the fire before the calire came um I was told to abandon um
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the house while I was literally of you know being reignited and you know within the 15 hours of um you know the wind
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blowing Amber flying everywhere um I had to wet my body twice uh three different times
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um just so I wouldn't catch on fire um and during that
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um the the the the the um Cal Fire didn't um they came they just like leave
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um so I'm like you know what how I'm going to abandon you know me thinking how am I going to abandon something and
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where's your fire equipment at y'all just running in yards and with no fire holes or nothing like that and stuff is
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burning like they're literally seeing me in this motion um that was a question um
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I was wondering why where's their Fire Equipment where's the water packs at uh before they extended their holes out um
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I know they had the excess um but it took them quite a while to to actually
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get into action um yeah I felt um maybe it was only 30% excuse me that
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they did right to actually save the houses right when um
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actually um that could have it could have been 100% um and why I put it to
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from 30 to 100% because the 30% of that time um they was watching houses Burn
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yeah um and if it could have you know 100% that some houses could have been saved yeah so my kind of in my
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experience um I saw all the houses around me burn up after even after
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calire even showed up um so it was kind of like uncomfortable in the way I
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didn't have what the equipment they had um I help my you know they had the water Hol I wish it was it was some point in
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times to where I wanted to go grab they hoes and get to my neighbor's house
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across the street like they're sitting there um you know people was observing the palm tree fire and once the palm
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tree ignites it that's it people that know about fire um so like I said it was
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it was more than three times that I wanted to grab the water holes off the
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fire engine myself and um and get to work and with a with a with a uh uh with
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some stronger uh assistance so I said I had two water holes so um they water holes have more power more pressure and
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stuff and I know for a fact I could have but even though I had the Wildland fir fighting train and I knew I couldn't just go on their truck and just grab
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their equipment and and I you know I'm out here in regular clothes and so um
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but that was the only thing troubling I would say that in my experience and that
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so to be clear you had two hoses and they had equipment but didn't use it to
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help you even save your home yeah so they watched you with two hoses save
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your home but did not assist you in saving your homes so the other homes
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were abandoned well you know people have vacated I should say yes but you're
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there and they didn't assist you am I is that how you're describing this very yeah um yeah they they came in um down
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my driveway um uh they see like I said literally see me in action with the hoes
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um uh some goes up they go to the next yard I know like I said they have to do an assessment um but um yeah um I had no
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uh no assistance uh it was no assistance um like I said they I started fighting the
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fire our house ignited around 3:00 a.m. 3:30 a.m. um and they didn't show up
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till about 9:30 that am. and um for them you know to unload the equipment and um
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like I said I'm running I got two water holes and I'm I'm running up and down and um it was just a lot of walking that
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they was doing um nothing I don't know I just faed I know they used to it but um for me I you know I would have put a
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little more just uming to like let's try to control this as much as possible and yeah I just noed a lot of those workers
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um just kind of just just in their own world and I know they
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trained for that they kind of used to that but um I mean I don't know I I if I had a crew in the team you know I we
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want to be on it let's save as many houses as possible um save as many properties as possible um not not sit
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there and be there and watch two or three properties just burn up and not do nothing yeah yeah yeah um I didn't ask
25:24
you about your your your recovery in your life uh far as getting back in the
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home or jobwise have you have you been infected that way uh yes yeah I was uh I
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was out of work for two weeks um um by God's grace um my my employer uh you
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know gave me enough time to you know able to come back my parents are on SSI so they're retired and um so you know
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fix income you know how that goes uh um but my my job was able to let me come
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back to work gracefully by God's grace and um far as the house um we're still
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in the dark um as far as being able to return to the house even though it's
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saved um like I said uh we have a landlord um he hasn't been doing too
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much communicating with us since this happened um kind of told us uh you know
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we're on our own until and that's just it yeah um so it's that's been difficult
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um um like I said there you know the home is saved uh um we're still in the unknown
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like we're in the unknown can't go up there like that yeah we haven't got permission to go back up there or to be
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like okay you can go up there until um you know as far as the owner um you
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know far as the owner saying until he knows what he's going to do or so we can know what we going to do um cuz um right
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when this happened uh he after you know he mentioned that um he was going to sell the property and uh you know we
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didn't get no six Monon notice or a year notice or nothing like that like it just came out of nowhere said that since the
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fires yes yes um so um yes it's you know
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it's it's like I said it's unknown and that's why I keep saying unknown because we the unknown um um like I said we're
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you know for my parents um it's about them yeah um and about their well-being
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so um right now it's really you know it's not easy I said we can't go to the house and kind of get back to normalness
27:33
because the landlord hasn't said anything or we don't know anything and um can I ask you a speculation a
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speculative question do you think it's possible he didn't want you to save the
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home is do you think that's possible did he thank you do you he didn't thank you that's
27:52
a I never got one thank you right I'm laughing about it now that's why I said
27:57
like earlier like I'm by God's grace I'm I'm better I'm in a better mental state than I was before um but no he he didn't
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even say a thank you he didn't ask about um how's my health he didn't say thank
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you for saving the property um he's an older gentleman um he's in his 80s okay
28:14
and um he's African-American and um and um but yeah not a one thank you um like
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said I wasn't trying to get too deep into to it but you know he told my mother that there shelters out there that can help us out and um wow and yeah
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after so um it's uh like I say he's he's older um like I said not a one thank you
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not how's your health how like I say he he didn't even worry about where you know where our head was going to even be
28:43
laid at and it ain't even for my benefit or even me like it's more my mother and
28:49
father absolutely they established the relationship with this man and that's why we've been there for 42 years so 41
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years um let's say I'll be 43 this year uh we moved there when I was two two years old so 41 42 years yeah been in
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the same residence um I said it's 40 some years so uh that that tells itself
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you know no problems right um everything that needed to be fixed on the house we did it on our own right and um yeah not
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like I said not even the thank you after it's uh it says a lot it says a lot all
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right all right well we'll leave the rest for the people watching to draw
29:31
their own conclusions but that says a lot God bless and and and thank you for sharing your story and thank you sir
29:38
thank you for having me and thank you for taking time out to talk with me as well and and I I appreciate your energy
29:44
and and thank you yeah um I said for anybody out there I I said again even um
29:49
if it's not a national disaster if you're able to help somebody yeah just man throw them a dub you know
29:57
throw them throw them $10 like or 50 you know it just even if you feel something is not right um you know don't worry
30:04
about it you know or even if you take the time to do it yourself instead of um
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you know if you don't feel comfortable handing somebody some money but I just encourage people uh stick together help
30:16
help one another out and do it from from your spirit and soul and just not for not from your flesh and know and I it it
30:24
it'll go a longer way so yeah thank you all right thank you
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