LA man saves street from ‘apocalyptic’ wildfire.

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BBC Two men stand on a roof with their hands up and smile at the camera. One was wearing a high waisted suit, the other a black jacket stained with ash. Another man is sitting behind them wearing a Jack of the Woods shirtBBC

Chester (left) and his son (center) celebrate by defending their home from their neighbor (right).

A Los Angeles brain surgeon who spent a week fighting to save houses on the street from fire told the BBC he had spent 15 years preparing for such an event.

Malibu resident Dr. Chester Griffiths, 62, ignored evacuation orders to avoid the Palisades fire with the help of his son and a neighbor until emergency services could get there.

“We always knew that one day there would be a fire – but we didn’t know when,” Dr Griffiths told the BBC’s Today programme.

“We didn’t expect it to be this dire and apocalyptic.”

Griffiths said he completed brain surgery just hours before returning to Malibu Street to fight the fire, joined by his son Chester Jr. and Colbert.

“The houses were falling like dominoes,” he said.

Fortunately, he and his neighbor, Clayton Colbert, had prepared a fire hose that they could use in the event of such a fire.

Connecting four hoses to hydrants, Dr. Griffiths, his son, and Mr. Colbert set out on nearby rooftops to spray water on the fire and use garbage to extinguish the embers on the ground.

“For about 12 hours burning embers were raining down on us,” Dr Griffiths said.

The trio were joined by firefighters only in the final days of their week-long ordeal, as resources were “stretched so thin” by the fires in the Los Angeles area.

“(The fire department) felt that all the houses were unsalvageable,” Dr. Griffiths said.

“I completely understand why the fire service is so busy helping,” he said.

A house in Malibu burns down.

The fire burned thousands of hectares of land and destroyed many buildings

Firefighters in Los Angeles are battling two large fires and two smaller ones as they brace for further destruction.

The Palisades Fire, burning between Santa Monica and Malibu, has burned more than 23,000 acres west of the city and is one of the most destructive fires in California history.

At least 24 people are dead and 23 missing in the Eaton and Palisades fire zones, and more than 90,000 are under evacuation orders.

They are residents. Bond for further offense Weather forecasts indicate that winds that will help fuel the fire may pick up again.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said “urgent preparations” are being made ahead of hurricane-force winds expected through Tuesday.

President Biden said he would spend tens of billions of dollars to rebuild parts of the city that were burned by the wildfires that lasted for a week.

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