Page 6 - Eric Marx News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The vehicle. >> what i see is the kids, you know, with the car burning. i was panicking. i was shaking for the whole commotion that was happening, but just to think that i'm going to lose them i was feeling numb, but i got out and ran to them. >> eric and his extended family make it out, but his grandmother's house is totally destroyed along with 60% of middletown's other homes. in the end, several firefighters suffered severe burns and four civilians lost their lives. >> i do think it's a miracle that we survived. it was the scariest thing of my life, and it always will be. nothing can top th...

>> in the chaos, eric and his brother lose contact with their family. panicked, they decide to stay in their car and try to reach the nearby highway, but it doesn't take long to realize their mistake. >> there was fire hitting the window, embers. you could barely see five feet in front of you even with the headlights. we were just driving. we were driving on what we thought the road was. [ honking ] the entire engine compartment caught on fire, the wheels caught on fire. our feet, we could feel the flames burning the metal and the plastic under the car. we could see the smoke coming up through...

>> go! >> with choking smoke closing in from all sides, eric's relatives take off in other vehicles while he jumps in the car with his brother. but as the brothers approach a nearby highway, they run straight into a wall of flames. >> hold on. hold on. >> what the [ bleep ]. >> go, go. oh, god. it's fire on the highway and you're in the hot seat. and later, how would you fare during an attack by an armed intruder? >> it looked like for some reason this is going to be to day that i die. someone sent someone to kill me.

It, you have no choice but to panic. >> oh, my god. middletown, california, a normally quiet community of 1,300 residents, about 70 miles north of san francisco. that all changed on september 12th 2015. after months of unusually dry heat, an enormous wildfire erupts, sending 200-foot high flames racing toward the town. >> the trees and the topography and the type of material that was burned had not burned in many, many years, which contributed to the fast rate spread of flame. >> get in the car. >> 16-year-old eric marx was watching the inferno from his grandmother's house in middletown when...

>> i hope she makes it out. >> in the chaos, eric and his brother lose contact with their family. panicked, they decide to stay in their car and try to reach the nearby highway, but it doesn't take long to realize their mistake. >> there was fire hitting the window, embers. you could barely see five feet in front of you even with the headlights. we were just driving. we were driving on what we thought the road was. [ honking ] the entire engine compartment caught on fire, the wheels caught on fire. our feet, we could feel the flames burning the metal and the plastic under the car. we could see...