Page 8 - Eric Marx News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Engulfed in flames. turns out their mother is nearby and witnesses their escape from 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 surv...

>> 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. and so we were just driving, and we were driving on what we thought the road was. 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 into th...

You, a, open the windows to prevent glass from shattering in the high heat, b, keep the windows closed or c, open the window slightly and then cover them with any materials available? >> you shouldn't cover any vehicle with window coverings due to the fact that those are combustible materials and those materials itself will start to catch fire just based on the radiated heat. >> and rolling down your windows will only let the elements in faster. so if you chose b, you made the correct decision. keep those windows closed. >> what you want to try and do is stay encapsulated inside that vehicle a...

Fresh air until that vehicle is actually overcome by smoke and fire snir and making a run for it isn't much better. >> you should not flee and foot. you most likely would be safer in a structure that would protect you for a matter of moments rather than being in the direct line of the wildfire. that fire front will move over you very rapidly and you have a better chance of survivability by putting yourself inside of a structure. >> the correct answer is b. but if no structure is available, there's another option. >> the best sort of escape in an inescapable environment in a vehicle is find an ...

California. >> get in the car. >> 16-year-old eric marx is watching the inferno from his grandmother's house in middletown. >> go. >> when suddenly the massive inferno is blocking all exits. >> oh, god. >> so what would you do? you're fleeing a burning town when you suddenly find your exit blocked by flames. should you, a, ditch the car and flee on foot? b, driver around and find the structure to hide inside or c, step on the gas and power through with the flames rising, you might be tempted to step on it. >> a running vehicle itself when it becomes overcome by a large amount of smoke will eve...