When the Palisades Fire broke out on Jan. 7, Caleb Serban-Lawler could see it from his apartment in downtown Los Angeles.
Serban-Lawler jumped in his car and raced toward the flames to help with evacuations. He had worked for about a year as an EMT in San Diego and trained to become a firefighter.
“The first half of the day, I was just going around and making sure people were out,” he said, adding that he also hosed down homes in the area to try to keep the approaching flames at bay.
Serban-Lawler, 25, had his medic equipment in his car, and wore his fire turnout gear to the scene, which was about 20 minutes from his house. He went straight to the top of the hilly Pacific Palisades neighbourhood.
As the sun was setting and Serban-Lawler was about to head home, a woman came running down the road through the smoke, and banged on his car window.
“Help me! Help me!” Nani Nam screamed at Serban-Lawler. “Can you please help me get my dogs?”
In a panic, she told him she was trying to flee with her four dogs, but her car – a hybrid SUV – would not start. She called 911 for help, she said, but no one answered.
“I was the only one up there,” Serban-Lawler said. “I did not see one police officer or fire truck until I was all the way at the bottom.”
He told Nam to get into his car.
“I got you; I got you,” Serban-Lawler told her.
They drove to Nam’s house, about 1,000 feet away, to get the dogs.
There was a complication, though. One of the Nam’s dogs – a pit bull named UFC, after the Ultimate Fighting Championship – is a foster, and he doesn’t get along with her other three rescue dogs.
“It was a really odd situation,” Nam said.
Serban-Lawler agreed to bring Nam’s three dogs down first, then go back for the pit bull. A news reporter they found at the bottom of the hill kept the three dogs in her car while they went back for the foster dog. When they got to Nam’s house, the flames had spread and her home was beginning to burn.
“It was getting really, really bad … within that five-minute drive down the hill, it got 10 times worse,” Serban-Lawler said. “It was like driving through a fire tornado.”
“There was a point where I thought I was going to die in the car,” said Nam, who is in her 40s.
Nam said she was shaken, while Serban-Lawler remained completely calm.
“Not too many people have the guts to do that,” said Nam, who is an artist.
“I was just kind of in the zone,” Serban-Lawler said. “I was focused on the mission of getting her out and keeping her safe.”
They made it to the bottom of the hill, where Nam’s three pups were waiting.
Since they only had one car and other vehicles were blocked off from the area, they put the pit bull in the back seat, while the husky-collie mix, Cleo, sat on Nam’s lap in the passenger seat, and her two chihuahuas, Strawberry and Piranha, sat in front of her by her feet. They had no choice but to bring the dogs in same car.
Serban-Lawler then drove Nam and her dogs to her friend’s house, about 40 minutes away. Nam said Serban-Lawler saved her life, and her dogs’ lives as well.
“Me and my animals wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for him,” she said.
The rescue was captured on Serban-Lawler’s dashcam, and he shared a video compilation on Instagram, including footage from the dramatic drive out of the neighbourhood. Thousands of comments poured in.
“As a dog mom of three, this made me cry that you were so calm and said an immediate yes. You are a good man,” someone wrote.
“The shock in her voice breaks my heart. Bless you. Thank you for saving her and her dogs,” another person commented.
Serban-Lawler, who works as a social media producer, said he acted on instinct.
“I would want someone to do the same if it was me,” he said, adding that he has volunteered every day with cleanup efforts and giving out food and water to first responders. The ongoing wildfires have so far scorched some 40,000 acres and killed more than 20 people.
After spending a few days at her friend’s house, Nam is now renting an apartment in Santa Monica. She said her home, which she lived in for 16 years, was burned to the ground.
“It’s all gone, the whole block,” Nam said between tears. “All the houses are gone.”
Nam also had to leave her six rescue cats behind in the blaze. They scrambled when she tried to bring them together and get them outside.
“I couldn’t catch them,” said Nam, who lived alone with her animals.
She said she’s hopeful the cats might still be alive. As soon as the neighbourhood is no longer blocked off, Nam said, she and Serban-Lawler plan to go back to look for them.
Although Nam lost so much in the fire – her home, her belongings and possibly her cats – she said her dogs are helping her get through this dark time.
“That’s what animals do for us,” she said. “If I didn’t have my babies, I would be heartbroken.”
She said she’s still stunned Serban-Lawler seemed to appear out of nowhere to help her.
“It was tragic, but it was just miraculous and beautiful that he was there,” she said. “I’m forever grateful to him.”