Sold the house, then returned to protect it

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Santa Clarita:

Furley Lumpkin, 54, a telecom executive, had just sold his Quartz Road house near the Magic Mountain fire, packed his belongings and planned to move to Texas when he heard that fire was lapping yards away from his property line. He got stuck in traffic trying to get home and frustrated, parked at a nearby grocery store and hiked half a mile to his house just as flames arrived. Suddenly, a helicopter swooped over and dropped water along his property line, followed by a fixed wing aircraft dumping fire retardant.

‘It was really fast, it was as if the firefighters had this scenario in their emergency plans and drills,’ Lumpkin said. ‘They are really aggressive about protecting houses.’

He said some neighbors were hosing down their houses. But, he said, ‘You are not going to do it with garden hose.’

He said he was unsure whether he would stay at his house tonight.

‘I want to watch this a little bit and let it cool down. It may not be safe to be here, there may be embers. But then you hate to leave.’

-- Molly Hennessy Fiske