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Garden Hoses Help Santa Clarita Family Save Home

SANTA CLARITA (CBSLA.com) — Michael Gibson and his family usually evacuate when a fire breaks out in the hills near their home, but he says Sunday, there was no time.

"We heard it was at the freeway and before we knew it and before anyone showed up, it was breaching the hillside here. It was just a really fast fire, the wind was blowing today. It just got on us so quick."

They didn't know how long it would take firefighters to reach their neighborhood, so Gibson and his sons grabbed their garden hoses.

"You can see how close the fire came to our house, my neighbor's balcony was on fire, this palm tree was on fire, this whole fence line was on fire."

They didn't just protect their property. They climbed fences and tried to save their neighbor's homes too.

"We're all pretty much friends here in the neighborhood. This guy is a nice guy, I'd hope he'd do the same for us. They were fighting on the other side of the yard. I don't think they even noticed it was on fire over here, so just helping them out and stuff," Connor Gibson said.

Now the professional fire crews are keeping an eye on the hot spots, making sure it's safe before letting people who did evacuate come back home. The Gibsons are glad there is a neighborhood for them to return to.

"I think we got pretty lucky, it was pretty close. It was scary," Michael Gibson said. "We're pretty fortunate, I think the only reason our house is still standing here is me and my sons stayed and fought the fire. It worked out pretty well for us."

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