A woman and her four dogs, stranded as her home burned in the Los Angeles wildfire, were rescued thanks to Caleb Serban-Lawler, a man returning home after volunteering to assist with the disaster on the outskirts of the Palisades Fire. Serban-Lawler had spent the day helping neighbors by watering roofs but began heading out around sunset “when everything took a turn for the worse.”
While driving out of the neighborhood, a panicked woman ran up to his car and knocked on his window. She explained that she had been preparing to evacuate when her car broke down. Later, on Instagram, she wrote, “”No one was around or allowed in and no help from 911, I ran down the hill in full panic and saw a truck, he actually came up my street by mistake and was making a u-turn to go back down as my hands slammed his car to stop.””
She told him her four dogs were trapped in her garage. Serban-Lawler drove up the mountain to her home, only to find her neighbor’s house engulfed in flames and hers starting to catch fire. He shared dramatic footage of their daring rescue.
If you have trouble viewing the YouTube video above, try the Instagram video Serban-Lawler posted.
Serban-Lawler helped the woman get her dogs into his car as flying embers, smoke, and flames surrounded them. The smoke was so thick it was difficult to see the road.
“I don’t know how you drove, you couldn’t see anything,” the woman told Serban-Lawler in the video. “I’m so grateful that I’m alive. I thought I was going to die. Thank you so much.”
Eventually, Serban-Lawler encountered a reporter who let him put three of the dogs into her car while he repositioned one dog who didn’t get along with the other three dogs.
Serban-Lawler later shared that the woman and her dogs was able to get to a friend’s house shortly after the rescue and he wrote, “All 4 dogs and her owner made it out safe, and nobody was harmed!”
The woman told Serban-Lawler that he had saved her life and was a hero. She also wrote on Instagram, “If it wasn’t for him, me and my 4 dogs would’ve died….Me and my pups will be forever grateful to a true hero, Caleb @calebserbanlawler who just happened to be volunteering on that deadly horrific day.”
Serban-Lawler told PEOPLE he doesn’t think he’s a hero. “Honestly, I was just doing the right thing, and I believe we need more people in the world willing to help like this.”
@dailymail This is the heroic moment producer and influencer Caleb Serban-Lawler rescued a woman and her four dogs in the Palisades fire in Los Angeles. #news #fire #losangeles #palisadesfire #wildfire : @Caleb Serban-Lawler
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