California Veteran Watched Home Burn Down

‘It Looked Like the Apocalypse.’ California Residents Watch in Horror as Wildfires Destroy Their Homes
TIME
Melissa Chan
October 10, 2017

“We were watching unit by unit by unit burn down,” said Flores, 66. “We just stood there in shock. It was so fast. My house just burned down in front of me.”

Eduardo Flores and his wife could only stare in shock as a massive fireball swallowed their longtime home in Santa Rosa, Calif. within minutes.

The Army veteran had woken up to use the bathroom about 1 a.m. Monday when he saw a blood-red sky outside. The wildfires that would leave at least 13 people dead and more than 1,000 homes destroyed in California's wine country had reached his front door.

“It was literally raining fire. We were choking, gasping for air,” he told TIME on Tuesday. Flores rushed outside to warn his sleeping neighbors in the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park. He hammered on their doors with his fists and smashed their windows while screaming. Ten minutes later, he and his wife grabbed their dog, left all their belongings behind and made their way to a nearby hospital, where they climbed to the third-tier parking lot. They had an aerial view of the destruction.
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