A neighbor used garden hoses and the assistance of a few neighbors to rescue his house and several others in the area during forced wildfire evacuations, defying the advice of thousands of others.
When flames started to move from house to house, carried by embers, on the morning of January 8, Antonio Antonetti, 66, claimed it wasn’t in his nature to flee.
“I was raised to confront my problems, my fears,” he stated. “I was not educated to fly away from fear, from pain, or from anything.”
Antonetti added that he was motivated by the idea of dealing with bureaucracy, government aid, and insurance claims in the event that he lost the property, as well as by his practice of Buddhism, which he believes taught him to take action.
“I don’t want to depend on the insurance companies,” he stated. “That’s way too much hassle for me.”
As the collective set up a stand with seven garden hoses, usually one in the front yard and one in the rear, on a group of parcels amid the 14,117-acre fire that began the day before, he said he joined forces with a couple of the neighbors who remained, including two brothers.
In the end, Antonetti claimed, the team’s work rescued seven houses, a semblance of life in a neighborhood that looked like the set of a post-apocalyptic movie.
According to the independent television producer, he began his career at Telemundo, a new Spanish-language TV network that is now owned by NBCUniversal in addition to NBC News.
As professional and inmate firefighters used the low water pressure of the hoses to fire-hose the neighborhood’s Craftsman bungalows, Tudor homes, midcentury modern buildings, and Spanish-style homes—many of which were eventually destroyed by the Eaton Fire—the neighborhood fighters did what they could on Wednesday morning.
Although it’s unclear what contributed to the group’s improbable success, Antonetti claimed he was never scared. That day, a neighbor called and asked him to leave, which he did.
Antonetti remembers answering, “Are you okay coming back tomorrow and there is no house?”
That didn’t sit well with Antonetti.
“I’m going to stay and make sure you don’t lose your house, and I don’t lose my house,” he stated he told the neighbor.
But this week, when first responders encouraged neighbors to evacuate, he claimed to understand how people responded to his risky and stubborn posture. “People are saying that I’m crazy in the video that I have,” Antonetti remarked.
According to him, he came up with a plan that required him to preserve his neighbors’ houses in order to save his own, and the island of buildings that need protection grew.
He stated, “I need to save the house next door and maybe the other house next door in order to save this house.”
As embers crossed property lines, the crew hosed down buildings and property, front and back, with optimism. He claimed that after losing a few, including a house across from Antonetti’s, they persisted.
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The Eaton Fire narrative is still in its early stages of development. On Sunday, it was 81% contained, and its cause is being investigated. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection estimates that the fire damaged 1,062 buildings and destroyed 9,300.
Due to dry, offshore winds and climate change, which Earth scientists think has increased the frequency, magnitude, and intensity of wildfires, the fire was one of several that started on January 7th, including the larger Palisades Fire.
The L.A. County medical examiner has attributed 27 deaths to the Eaton and Palisades fires.
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Although Antonetti claimed he didn’t think his life was in danger and was prepared to leave if necessary, he cautions people against disobeying evacuation orders.
In the aftermath, the severity of the fires struck him. According to Antonetti, he could hear the sobs of neighbors who had congregated on the site of their former home in Altadena, spanning three generations.
“It hit me emotionally,” he stated. “I wish I could’ve saved all their homes, you know?”
