The Man Who Battled The Flames To Save His Corner Of Paradise

Paradise, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Nov, 2018 ) :By all accounts, retired carpenter Brad Weldon should have evacuated his home in Paradise as the flames approached.

Surrounded by pine trees and other greenery, with a pile of dry logs at the ready for the winter months, it was a tinderbox.

But Weldon, egged on by his 90-year-old mother who refused to budge, fought back, with only his mother's 26-year-old health care aide to help him.

And against all odds, he won -- while his hometown was largely destroyed by the Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive in state history, his house remains.

"We had a choice, we could have left," Weldon, 63, told AFP in front of his home, its trees nearly intact -- but surrounded by the smoldering ashes of his neighbors' homes on all sides.

"We were prepared when we heard the fire was coming, but I couldn't leave my mom," said Weldon, his goatee gray and an American flag bandana on his head.

"She's blind and 90 years old, and pretty much invalid, and she didn't want to go anywhere... So we stayed and fought the fire -- thank God we did."Weldon and his housemate battled the flames all day Thursday and into the night -- with garden hoses, and then buckets of water they filled from the above-ground swimming pool.

"Scoop and run! We fought with garden hoses for six or seven hours before we had to turn the buckets -- maybe eight hours, I don't know," he explained. "Not bad for two boys!"