Homeowners Fight Riverside County Fire With Garden Hoses
RUBIDOUX (CBSLA) — Memo Contreras was getting ready to relax during the last hours of his weekend on Sunday, but as the smokey air crept into his home he turned to see flames racing onto his family's property.
"It was exploding and the ground would shake," he said. "After a few seconds, it was blowing up and burning everything."
Contreras and his family lived right next to MTZ Pallet solutions where dumpsters, vehicles and hundreds of pallets had caught fire.
According to CAL Fire/Riverside County Fire Department, the fire was reported around 8 p.m. at the pallet yard in the 2400 block of Rubidoux Boulevard. The windy conditions allowed the fire to quickly spread to telephone poles, burning the electrical lines and eventually spreading to the size of 100 yards by 100 yards.
While his cousin evacuated with the kids and dogs, Contreras decided to stay and fight the fire; armed with only a small garden hose. However, he wasn't alone as a few of his neighbors began to spray their roofs to stop the fire from spreading.
"They were just exploding and embers would fall on the rooftops and it lit the palm trees on fire," said Contreras.
Fire crews from Murrieta, Ontario, Hemet, Corona, Riverside and Orange County responded to the fire and stopped the forward spread of the fire around 11 p.m, but by that time, the pallet yard, several structures and vehicles were destroyed.
CAL Fire Riverside said the cause remains under investigation.