As the Eaton Fire barreled through Altadena, Antonio Antonetti was determined to stay and save his home. In the end, he was able to save seven homes.
“Some friends called around midnight and said to leave,” Antonetti told CNN on Monday.
The 66-year-old said he watched the fire from afar but soon, it was just blocks from his home.
“My tenant knocked on my door at 4 a.m. and said we have to leave I said go ahead and go,” he said. “I saw fire jumping from house to house.”
He said he called his neighbor who told him he had already evacuated.
Antonetti, along with two other neighbors in their 60s, stayed behind running from home to home to extinguish flames as embers started fires in the neighbor’s yards. He said a key to his plan was to turn the water hoses in all the neighbors’ homes so that they were easily accessible for when they needed to put out hot spots.
He said the yards and fences were the first that would catch fire, so he would extinguish those and it helped the fire from not spreading to the homes. At one point during the firefight, he said the water was cut for a short time.
Along with his plan, he said, “Of course, you have to have some courage.”
He said they went from house to house until he saw the flames at the rear of his own property. “The house behind me started catching fire but it was impossible to stop,” he said.
In a video he recorded, the garage of his neighbor is engulfed in flames and a car is seen melted down to just the frame. Antonetti is standing with a water hose, trying to control the bright orange embers from lighting his yard on fire.
He was able to control the fire from spreading to his home. He said he saved seven homes, including his own.
After battling the fires, he said that looters attempted to get into his neighbor’s home and he went to confront them.
Antonetti said police were quick to respond and they sent more personnel to secure the area.
