You just got to push through. You do not stop. I said, please send somebody. And she said, theres nobody to send. It was, survivors said, like something alive a living, breathing giant that came out of the woods to hunt them down. The flames were so relentless, they burned for a month. So fast, they raced through roughly three football fields per second. Hi, everyone. Im lester holt. Welcome to dateline. It was californias biggest wildfire, one of the most brutal ever recorded. Tonight, youll hear from the people trapped in its path, how they ran for their lives against the flames, against the clock to escape. And it began in one of the most beautiful places on earth. It was perfect. It was our dream home. Its exactly what you want if you want to be away from a city. Its just so peaceful and so calming and just to me, its heaven on earth. The mountains are gorgeous. Its the valley of the sun. I grew up in ramona. And i always loved just the people and the area. Ramona is 30 miles east of san diego in the foothills of the cuyamaca mountains. Im a huge fan of rescuing animals. My favorite animal that we have in 2003 is my horse fia, a clydesdale that we rescued at three months old from canada. Shes my favorite and shes very special. Ive raised her from nothing. We have two dogs that we rescued and a couple of cats and the two potbellied pigs were rescues because people got them and then decided they didnt want them anymore. I got the pig from a friend of mine who needed to find a home. And i gave it to her. And then because that pig was lonely, i had to get her another pig. And so i got her two pigs. Unfortunately, it wasnt a great idea. You know, thats not the way to a womans heart, i guess. Im just not a pig person, i guess. We live in the community of Valley Center, which is northeast of san diego, probably about 50 miles. John and i actually decided to move to Valley Center when our children were small because we wanted them to have a more rural environment to grow up in. In 2003, asheleigh was 16. Allyson was 20 and jason was 22. Jason was always the one that was looking out and making sure that everything was okay. He was a complete boy scout. You know, i really tried to stay away from doing a lot of dumb things. I tried to be the more cautious of my family. Allyson is a middle child. She was our risktaker. She wouldnt test the water before jumping in, shed just jump in. Ashleigh absolutely loved irish dance. It just it was a part of her soul. And she just absolutely glowed when she was dancing. October 25th, 2003, my youngest sister ashleighs homecoming dance, her first. She was just glowing and was excited about going to the dance. She picked out this really beautiful sleeveless red satin gown. She just looked so beautiful. She just looked like just the Perfect Little lady. And grown up. And very grown up. And were thinking, gosh, you know, time is passing so fast, and shes growing so quickly. So you just really wanna slow things down and just cherish every moment. Saturday started out as a typical day for us. We had ally, our 18monthold daughter. We did projects around the ranch and just took it easy. Saturday, family day. It was a nice, relaxing day. But at the same time, it was dry and hot. So, you know, we also stayed close to the ranch when it was dry and hot. I work as a helicopter pilot for the sheriffs office. Proceed northbound wind we received a call of a missing hunter in the Cleveland National forest, east of ramona. Dispatch called us as we were en route to the missing hunter. The winds were probably blowing 30 miles an hour at that time. And said now there was a column of smoke coming from the same vicinity of our missing hunter. And we realized as we got closer, yeah, theres a fire on top of this hill. I went down to feed at around 5 20 in the evening, which is before dusk, because thats when animals want their dinner. And thats when i saw the smoke. It was a clear, blue sky. And out beyond us, over the mountains, it looked like somebody had taken a pencil and drawn a single, wispy line. It was just one single, little plume in the sky. And that was the start of it. Coming up i just remember the smoke alarm going off. He was just yelling, i smell smoke. Concern begins to spread. But flames are spreading faster. The ash. It almost looks like snow. You know the fire is coming towards you. I said, this is going to be bad, isnt it . And he said, yes, it is. With advil liquigels, youll ask. What stiff joints . What bad back . Advil is. Relief thats fast. Strength that lasts. Youll ask. What pain . With advil liquigels. I comparison shop for everything. Big stuff. Little stuff. Everything. I even comparison shop loans right here. I shopped and compared for my mortgage and saved 20,000. Booyah so, jardiance asks. When it comes to type 2 diabetes, are you thinking about your heart . Well, im managing my a1c, so i should be all set. Right. Actually, youre still at risk for a fatal heart attack or stroke. Even if im taking heart medicine, like statins or blood thinners . Yep thats why i asked my doctor what else i could do. She told me about jardiance. Thats right. Jardiance significantly reduces the risk of dying from a cardiovascular event for adults who have type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. Thats why the American Diabetes association recommends the active ingredient in jardiance. And it lowers a1c . Yeah with diet and exercise. Jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. Ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. A rare, but lifethreatening, bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction. Do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. So, what do you think . Now i feel i can do more to go beyond lowering a1c. Ask your doctor about jardiance today. Thyou know what i do instead . Eny your cravings. I snack on blue diamond almonds. Wasabi soy sauce . mmm dont deny your cravings. Eat em all the flavors you crave, in a superfood. Blue diamond almonds. Crave victoriously. You wont find relief here. Congestion and pressure . Go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritind. While the leading allergy spray only relieves 6 symptoms, claritind relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. Claritind relieves more. It was just before halloween in 2003, and there was something frightening in the california forest. People outside san diego have begun to see tendrils of smoke in the air, the fingers of the beast. None of these families knew yet that it would be heading straight toward them. Station 73 is situated just a few hundred yards away from our front door. The relationship between the Fire Department and our family started when ashleigh introduced herself. So she calls from the fire station one afternoon and she said, so, mom, what are we having for dinner . I said, well, im fixing bean and ham soup. And i ended up with a dining room full of firefighters trying to stretch my dinner, which it worked. We ended up inviting them down for thanksgiving, for christmas, for new years. We had a Halloween Party, we had the firefighters came down. Everyone was busying around. It was also busy because ashleigh, our youngest, was getting ready to go to her homecoming dance. So it was an exciting and very busy day. We had just entered a new chapter in our lives. Our daughters were off at college. And we wanted a change. So in may of 2003 we moved into the canyon and were very naive, i think about the potential for fires in that area. We actually had gone to a Halloween Party for our dog club. We took tara to the party. And we took charter to the party. We had a blast. We had so much fun. Dogs with fairy wings and dogs dressed as bumblebees. We got home from there about 10 00 at night. And i fell asleep on the couch in the family room. Bob came rushing down the stairs. And he was just yelling. I smell smoke, and ive never smelled it this strongly before. We live in the town of lakeside, and the particular area where we live is called barona, and its extremely rural. Where we live, our closest neighbor is probably a half mile to a mile away. Its just a wonderful place to raise girls. In 2003, i was 13 and my sister was 11. I just remember the smoke alarm going off and getting up. And so i go to my parents room. And i ask my mom whats going on. I decided i would call the sheriffs department. The sheriffs told me that the fire was 10 miles away. At the time, the winds were not bad. They didnt think it was really gonna spread. And so for us just to go back to bed and things would be fine. Thomas was always trying to get me to relax during fires because i would just hit the panic button every time, and i grew up in a city. Had no experience with fires when i moved to ramona in 1990. I had evacuated numerous times growing up you know, you just, you know, theres a fire, you evacuate. I said to myself, well, its still light enough. Im sure the planes will come. But im gonna go call 911 anyway because im paranoid about fires. The evening the fire started, i had just gotten home when the pager went off. And so i immediately, you know, said goodbye to everybody and loaded back up. I got about ten minutes from the house when i looked up the first time from 67 and was able to see fire, very briefly, but i was able to see that we did have an active burning fire. I went and got the scanner that we had. We had a fire Police Scanner because of incidents like this, so we could keep track of what was going on. Just for your information, this is a confirmed fire, approximately 20 acres, mid slope. As i was listening to them, watching it get darker and darker, realizing that the planes were not going to come. Do we have any, a way to get any aircraft down here, is there any available . Division three, thats negative for aircraft. Its after cutoff. They had a very difficult time finding an access point to get to the fire. The fire still looks to be approximately 2025 acres. Very difficult access. Were still trying to look at some options to get in on this thing but its going to be a while. Not sure if well be able to get folks in tonight or not. The road structures were narrow, little, nasty a fire engine could barely make it down there, much less 30 or 40 of them, and crew buses and everything thats needed to to get in there. It was just a really bad scenario where that fire was. You could say it was the perfect storm. They were calling in crews from faraway, northern california, other states so i knew that response was going to take a long time. El coruso hotshots and vista grande hotshots are en route to your fire. Copy, thanks. And so i tried to act as normal as possible because my daughter needed me to. I put her to bed at around 7 00 and i went upstairs to sit on the roof where i could get a really good view of it. The glow got bigger and started to spread from north to south. And it was around 10 00 the dispatch lady said, ill never forget this she said, the marlins won the world series and santa ana winds are expected to reach 60 to 80 miles an hour tonight starting at midnight. Flamedriven santa ana fire is the most deadly kind of fire that we have in Southern California because the combination of dryness and the wind speed means the fire can travel at 60 to 80 miles an hour the head of the fire. And i knew at that point that it was gonna be really bad. And i said to thomas, who at that point had joined me up on the roof, this is going to be bad, isnt it . And he said, yes, it is. It was moving faster than we thought it was. What the fire was doing, it was spotting, and when i say that, it means that you have a flame front, and then out in front you have different fires starting, because embers are getting thrown out, you know, a half mile, a mile ahead. And so, new fires are starting. I had all these things going on in my head. What are we going to do with the baby, with all the animals . I had to make the right decisions because, you know, making the right decisions gets people killed. He said i need to video contents for the insurance company, i need to grab the camera and take video, thats how i knew how worried he was. Im going to get the fire pump out and leave it. At one point i called my friend bob. Bob, theres a fire you need to be aware of it. Its coming at us. Can you come over and help us prepare . My moms was a safe place to go. The fire was to the east. Theres no way the fire would get to my moms to the west. You know, i mean yeah, thats the way the fire is going. But its ten miles away. The thing we start noticing is the ash. It almost looks like snow. When the ash starts falling on you then you know the fires coming towards you. And then its just like oh [ bleep ]. You know, thats the fire. I mean, that is like, step up your game. You got to get going. Coming up it sounded like the roar of a freight train. It felt like a beast. This beast was everywhere. I said, please, please send somebody. And she said, theres nobody to send. Drive safely. 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The mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Now through may 31st. Only at your authorized mercedesbenz dealer. You know reliable support when you have it, and that dependability is what we want to give our customers. At comcast, its my job to constantly monitor our network. Prevent problems, and to help provide the most Reliable Service possible. My name is tanya, i work in the Network Operations center for comcast. We are working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Theres a fire in pomerado road, Sycamore Canyon area. And of course we have the big fire in ramona, lakeside. Oh my god, theres three . There wasnt just one wildfire leaping from the forest. There were several. Others had burst to life in the same area at the same time. There would be 14 fires in all that day, a perfect firestorm. And the roach family was right in its path. The fire is making significant increase and spreading now. Were probably less than an hour before were going to start seeing some heat over here. We were aware that the cedar fire had erupted probably 25, 30 miles away from our house, so we werent very concerned about it. When we really started getting concerned is when allyson called us. She was taking a friend home and said that the reservation was on fire. We could see that the fire was a couple miles north, so not heading towards our house. And we thought, well, we should be fine. And we would just leave if we had to be evacuated. Wed been warned by the firefighters that if you get the evacuation notice, you need to be prepared to get out quickly. I took the photo albums out and put them in the truck. Some of our paperwork, put that in the truck. And we hooked up the suv to our tank trailer and pointed all the cars down the hill in case we had to get out quickly. So our plan was to all get in separate vehicles and take all our vehicles off of the property. It was about 1 00 in the morning. Allyson and ashleigh at that point were asleep. And we went into the girls bedrooms and, we did have them get dressed and sleep in their clothes, just in case. So i asked jason, can you please take the first watch and, you know, periodically, every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, go outside, check the fire. It looked like at that time that the fire was moving through the north end of Valley Center heading west, and it looked like thats where the largest glow was. At 3 00 a. M. , i go around and tell my parents that it looked like the fire had moved into the center of Valley Center, away from us, and that i was heading off to go to catch some rest. And so at that point, i laid back down and thought we were in good shape, and i went down to sleep myself. Just heads up, the fire has picked up quite a bit. I opened our bedroom door, and the smell of smoke was pretty overwhelming. We tried to find information about the fire. We went online. We went to the news sites. And then i was able to talk with a person at the barona fire station, just two miles up the canyon from us. And he said, well, youre safe where you are because its in ramona. So i sat there on a chair by our window and thought, god help the people in ramona. Horses are really good at, you know, feeling what their owners, the riders are feeling. So they know were nervous, so theyre starting to get nervous. Theyre starting to get jumpy, and theyre starting to get dangerous. Theyre 1,000, you know, 1,100 pounds of muscle, and theyre starting to jump around a little. When i heard that the fire was going to start moving at 60 miles an hour, i knew it was time to get the horses out of here, so i came down and i opened the trailer and i started to load them. The first horse loaded right in no problem. And then it was time to load fia, and she didnt want to go in. She knew i was upset, and she was getting more and more upset herself. And shes 1,800 pounds and she would put one foot in and back out, and put two feet in and back out. I tried cookies. I tried grain. I tried everything. I was pleading with her. I was crying, youve got to get in this trailer. Youve got to get in this trailer. And i had to make a choice between never seeing fia again and getting ally out. So i turned her loose and i said to thomas, turn em loose, turn em loose. Its the only chance they have. And i didnt look back. You would think Mother Nature had a watch because right at midnight, the wind hit, and it hit hard. And it just the fire exploded. And that was when i could hear it. It sounded like the roar of a freight train. I looked up past the trailer to look at the mountains and where it had just been an orange glow, i could see flame. It was literally a firestorm. So were bracing ourselves against the wind. Were hearing the roar, yelling to each other what to