Jesusita Fire: Retired Santa Barbara city firefighter saves home w/ Garden hose

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Jesusita Fire: Retired Santa Barbara city firefighter saves home w/ Garden hose

On leafy Las Canoas Road in Santa Barbara, Walter Hildbran was jubilant. Today is his mother's 90th birthday and the flames have not touched her house.

Hildbran, 69, managed to save his own place, running around with a garden hose and spraying water wherever the hose could reach.

"I'm sure it would have burned if I hadn't," Hildbran said. "I came up the driveway and saw this wall of flames on the hillside behind the house and just kept on spraying."

Hildbran is a retired Santa Barbara city firefighter. Asked if his own department would endorse homeowners staying in mandatory evacuations zones to protect their homes, he chuckled.

"No, we frown on it," he said.

Source: Santa Barbara fire: Homeowner fights to save his house

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Saturday, May 9, 2009