Posted on 10/13/2017 6:25:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
Jan Pascoe and her husband, John, were trapped. The world was on fire, and Jan was hyperventilating from fear. Then they remembered their neighbors’ pool.
“You’ve got to calm down, Jan,” she told herself. “You can’t go underwater and hyperventilate.”
At 12:40 a.m. Monday, Jan called 911. She reached a dispatcher.
“We are going to get into the neighbors’ pool, should we do this?’
The dispatcher said, “Get anywhere safe.”
“Please. We will be in the pool,” Jan replied. “This is where we are.”
“In my naivete, all night long,” she would tell me later, “I thought someone would come to get us.”
Jan, 65, and her husband, John, 70, debated when to get in. She wanted to right away, but John said, “Hold off. The water’s cold. Let’s see what happens.”
As they stood at the edge of the pool, the neighbors’ house caught fire. A big tree next to the pool went up in flames. The railroad ties framing the concrete steps leading to the pool ignited.
“The heat was ‘whoa,’” John said. He stripped off his pants and jacket, and wearing only a T-shirt, turned to Jan and said, “Jump in now.”
She was wearing a thin tank top and lightweight pajama bottoms. Her glasses had disappeared.
They submerged themselves in the blackened, debris-filled water. They had grabbed T-shirts to hold over their faces to protect themselves from embers when they surfaced for air.
They moved to the part of the pool farthest from the house. John was worried about having to tread water, or hanging on to the side, which could be dangerous with all the burning objects flying around. Blessedly, the pool had no deep end. It was about 4 feet deep all the way across.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Awful! Prayers!
Scary but pretty innovative. Beats the alternative
Who? Superman? How was "someone" supposed to get through the flames, if you couldn't?
I'm glad they're alive. Thank God and don't kvetch.
bump
As someone who has been through a wildfire, when they tell you to evacuate, DO IT!!!
Clever. And a blessing it was only 4ft deep.
What about the Cat???????????????????? Did he survive?
If you have a pool and live in a wildfire prone area, why wouldn’t you have installed a home fire pump system with roof sprinklers?
Here’s something for you all. If you ever find yourself trapped in a fire and your exit from the room is blocked most walls are sheetrock and can be kicked thru allows an exit. As a former f/f I’ve gone thru a wall in an adjoining apt to gain access
Every system has limitations. From the “after” photos, these fires would have been an over-matching threat to a home pump/sprinkler sytem. OTOH, living next door to someone with a pool is looking like a credible idea.
He was rescued by a kindly old Chinese guy.............
Good info!........................
Someone here on FR said they actually own a retired firetruck for their property.
I’m surprised they were able to breath as the air must have been super heated or too smokey to inhale.
They used wet tee shirts to breathe thru.............
God bless these poor people.
Jesus please send down Your healing grace and help our sisters and brothers who have been so damaged by these fires.
“God bless these poor people.”
Obviously He did but with them living there I doubt they were/are poor. They choose to live there, their decision making, in my humble opinion, is what is poor.
I’m very thankful that these folks made it through this horrible ordeal....but, to say they had “no warning” ??? When the entire area has been under warnings for DAYS?? Even their own daughter warned them.
Then, to call 911 and ask the dispatcher if they should get into the pool? And, to (admittedly) assume LEO’s would arrive at any minute - through the raging fires - to come get them??
I’m sorry, but, to me this couple epitomizes the problem with Kali, in a nutshell.
An aside- reminds me of the lady who survived the high rise apartment fire by turning on her bathtub water. Can’t remember which building it was, but it wasn’t too long ago.
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