Video shows a good Samaritan warning a family to evacuate as the Norte Fire in San Juan Capistrano rushed toward their house — the only one on the block that remained intact Friday.
Justin Ziegler says after getting an alert on his phone early Friday afternoon that the Norte Fire was burning, he jumped in the car and headed up into the hills of San Juan Capistrano.
“We figured we could kind of see the whole valley and what was burning up, and we found ourselves in the middle of the fire,” Ziegler told NBC Los Angeles. “It was like a scene from a movie, you know. Everything was just on fire, maybe at this point 300 feet from the houses.”
Eventually, he turned on Via La Mirada, which runs right up to the burning hillside.
“A lot of people were evacuating and getting their stuff together,” he said. “I saw that there was a mother and a 6-year-old boy kind of standing in the doorway of their house, looking around as we were about to leave.”
The woman and her son went back inside, but Ziegler says that as the flames got closer by the second, he knew the family was in danger if they didn’t evacuate. Video shows him at the front door, pleading with the woman inside to leave.
“You could kind of see the fear set in her eyes. I’m like, ‘We got to go,'” he said. “You could see all the kid’s toys and stuff on the ground. It was truly a heartbreaking scene.”
Ziegler says he helped them get in the car and watched them pull out of their driveway and take off. He quickly left the neighborhood too and came back hours later to see the damage left behind.
“Three of the houses are completely gone, smoldered over, and that’s it,” he said. “Her house is fine, the only one on the block.”
Despite the family’s home narrowly escaping the danger, Ziegler says he’s grateful he made sure they got away safely.
“We need to bring people together, and so it’s good to do the right thing, you know, at the very least,” Ziegler said.
He says the woman thanked him for knocking and urging them to evacuate.
