Man who saved his home from LA wildfires utilizing solely a backyard hose – whereas his neighbours properties had been razed to the bottom

A man who fought off the wildfire ravaging through Los Angeles with a garden hose in order to save his home says: ‘Some things in life are worth fighting for.’ 

John Carr, 65, ignored evacuation warnings to stay behind and save his inherited house his parents built in Palisades.

He leapt over fences, hurting a rib in the process, as the flames began to enter his rear garden and creep nearer to his home.

Mr Carr grabbed his garden hose to extinguish the spot fires and stayed awake ‘all night and all day’ to stave off the blaze.  

‘The house was built by my mother and father in 1960 and I lived here my whole life so there’s a lot of memories here. And I think I owed it to them as well to try my best to save it,’ the brave former pilot said. 

‘Some things in life are worth fighting for, you know. If I were to lose this house, it would be very difficult to afford to build a new house, to pay the enormous property taxes they have here. What would I do?’

In an interview with Reuters, Mr Carr can see calmly walking up to his home and cleaning the pond in his garden that has miraculously escaped unscathed thanks to his heroic efforts. 

In stark contrast, his neighbours’ homes and left nothing but a pile of ash and ruin as he claims not a single fire crew came to help him battle the flames.

John Carr, 65, ignored evacuation warnings to stay behind and save his inherited house his parents’ built in Palisades, Los Angeles 

He leapt over a fence, hurting his rib in the process, and grabbed his garden hose to fight off the flames

Mr Carr says he has lived in the house all his life which was built by his mother and father (pictured)

His house has been left miraculously unscathed thanks to his heroic efforts but he claims not a single fire engine came to help him

‘If they had had some fire trucks and just put a squirt here, a squirt there and kept an eye on things, all these houses would be here now,’ he said. 

‘I’m telling you right now. I saw it with my own eyeballs. All these houses. The houses behind me they’re all gone. They started with one little spark, one little small fire. 

‘They just squirted those out, had a few people out there, they’d all be here now.’

Locals have branded him a ‘hero’ but a modest Mr Carr says he will leave that to others to decide. 

‘I did what I needed to do, I did what I wanted to do, I did what I thought I could do,’ he said. 

‘They [my neighbours] have been very gracious, The neighbour over here thanked me for saving his house, and the other neighbour thanked me… so a thanks is plenty.’ 

As of Sunday morning, the Palisades Wildfire, west of downtown Los Angeles, has grown to about 22,660 acres with containment at 11 percent. The Eaton Fire northeast of Los Angeles was at 14,100 acres with containment at 15 percent. 

The fires have burned down over 5,000 structures and 16 people have lost their lives.

It’s in stark contrast to his neighbours’ homes just a stone’s throw away with have been left nothing but a pile of ash and ruin

The former pilot is pictured here cleaning out the pond in his rear garden

Locals have branded him a ‘hero’ but a modest Mr Carr says he will leave that to others to decide

Mr Carr (pictured here scaling the front steps to his front door) says ‘if I were to lose this house, it would be very difficult to afford to build a new house’

There are apocalyptic scenes around Mr Carr with his house one of the only few still left standing in the neighbourhood  

California Governor Gavin Newsom has come under fire for the way he has handled the catastrophe. 

He was slammed today for his over-the-top body language in an interview he gave to NBC’s Meet The Press about his response to the raging wildfires in Los Angeles. 

Newsom, wearing a black button down untucked with a pair of jeans, spoke with his hands all throughout the 18-minute-long conversation that took place in Altadena, a community that’s been ravaged by the Eaton Fire. He often clapped and made other big gesticulations as he answered questions.

He signaled that he didn’t know why all three water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades – each holding about 1 million gallons – had run dry right as the fires began last week.

‘Was it pipes? Was it electricity? It was a combination of pipes, electricities, and pumps. Was that drawdown impossible because you lost seven-plus thousand structures right here anyway and every single structure we lost had a pipe that was leaking, and we would’ve lost that water pressure anyway?’ Newsom told NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff.

‘Did it contribute in any way to our inability to fight the fire? Or were 99 mile-an-hour winds determinative and there was really no firefight that could’ve been more meaningful?’

Newsom also denied he was playing the blame game by opening an independent investigation into why the reservoirs were empty.