LA brain surgeon saves street from 'apocalyptic' wildfires

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles brain surgeon who fought for almost a week to save the houses on his street from wildfires told the BBC he spent 15 years preparing for such an event.

Malibu resident Dr Chester Griffiths, 62, ignored evacuation orders to keep flames from the Palisades fire at bay with the help of his son and neighbor, until emergency services were able to reach them.

"We had always known that a fire would come someday — but we didn't know when," Dr Griffiths told the BBC's Today Programme.

"We never fathomed it would be this catastrophic and apocalyptic."

Griffiths said he had finished performing brain surgery just hours before he returned to his Malibu street last week to fight the fire, joined by his son Chester Jnr and Colbert.

"The houses were coming down like dominoes," he said.

Thankfully, he and his neighbor, Clayton Colbert, had developed an action plan in the event of such a fire and had sourced hoses that they could use.

Connecting four hoses to hydrants, Dr Griffiths, his son and Mr Colbert positioned themselves on nearby roofs to spraying water on the flames, and using dirt to put out embers on the ground.

"There were burning embers coming down on us for about 12 hours," said Dr Griffiths.

The trio was only joined by firefighters in the last few days of their week-long ordeal because resources were "so widely stretched" due to the number of blazes in the Los Angeles area.

"The (fire department) felt that all the homes weren't able to be saved," said Dr Griffiths."

He says he "totally understands" why the fire service was too busy to help, adding: "That's why it's so important to be trained ahead of time, to have your equipment and truly to have your community's support." — BBC