THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: A SPECIAL REPORT : EYEWITNESS : LEONA MARINO: Firefighter : ‘After It’s All Calmed Down. . . You Feel It’

In the end, the gratitude of homeowners made up for the fear, the excruciating heat and the sense of helplessness 37-year-old Leona Marino felt as she struggled to save Malibu.

Marino got the call early Tuesday at her San Joaquin County home to stand by for fire duty. By 6:30 the next morning, she was battling the Calabasas/Malibu blaze, working side by side with her son, 23-year-old Capt. Darin Downey and her fiance, 24-year-old Capt. Richard Steffensen, members of San Joaquin County Delta Fire’s Strike Team 4178 Alpha.

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Going through Topanga Canyon early Wednesday was pretty scary.

We were in the engine and we couldn’t see where we were going, couldn’t hardly breathe. We had to stop right in the middle of all the smoke because the fire had jumped the road and it was blocking us. Your life is in the hands of your strike team leader, just hoping that he makes sound judgments, and he’s been a great strike team leader.

The best moment was Wednesday at around 2:30 p.m., watching a house almost burn, and then our strike team saved the house. We wet it down with foam and wet all around it, and the owners were standing there watching, with their two dogs in the car. The house came very close to burning.

You feel a sense of loss, that’s for sure. How could you not? If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be a firefighter.

After it’s all calmed down and gone down, you feel it. Just watching these homes burn right here on the canyon hill, and then being some places where we were and seeing people scared and worried, wondering why we were taking off when their homes are being threatened. But we knew the homes were safe because the roofs were foamed down.

I never wanted to fight fires. (My fiance and son) kind of talked me into it. But it gives me a sense of doing something. I’ve always been actively involved in my community, and this is just another way.

It’s just incredible how the people here are treating the firefighters, just incredible.

People put signs up, “Firefighters Are Our Heroes.” And really, what we’re doing, we’re getting paid to do. I wouldn’t change it. I’d do this again in a hot second.