After some homeowners decided to stay and battle the ferocious Blue Cut Fire with just their garden hoses, NBC4 caught 83-year-old John Hockaday who did it using a walker.
He was one a few neighbors who stuck it out. Hockaday is known as a local historian and even at 83, even with a walker, he said he was not only protecting his house but history.
"It's an off-road walker," joked Hockaday as he was covered in soot and dirt talking about how he used his spinners to fight the fire. "The fire was coming down this way. That didn't stop it, but it slowed it down enough that I could keep up with it."
Newschopper4 flew over as he used his garden hose to battle back the flames.
Ron Snow, Hockaday's cousin living in the Bay Area, saw Hockaday on the NBC4 website and worried that he might not make it through the intense fire.
But Hockaday was too intense himself to give up.
"I was going to go down with the ship," he said. "I'm Cajon pass guy, you know?"
"Cajon Pass Guy" is an author who wrote two books about the area and was protecting the oldest house still standing in the Cajon Pass.
Built in 1928 he says and he fought all night to save it and when he ran out of water he drove down to get help.
Fire crews thought he was trespassing and detained him. He was released a couple of hours later, returned home, fire still raging, determined to save what he could.
"It's my thing," he said. "I'm Mr. Cajon Pass."
He read a poem:
"The thing that brings troubled to me is that my brain still thinks I'm 33. But no matter how much I curse and fret. Thank the Lord, I ain't dead yet."
