Man Tells Harrowing Story Of Rescuing Elderly Parents From Home That Burned Down

SUNLAND  (CBSLA.com)  —    Some woke to the reality that everything they owned was destroyed.

KCAL 9's Crystal Criz spoke to one man who rescued his elderly parents moments before their house burned to the ground.

The son walked Cruz through the home where he grew up. His dad now 88, his mother 78.

"My neighbor came from nowhere," said Craig Bollesen, "he put my dad in a wheelchair and picked him up. I took the front. And we carried him down the backstairs."

At his parents age, he said starting over is not going to be easy.

"It's daunting," he said, "it's daunting."

The house was not a mansion but to Bollesen it was huge.

"It doesn't look that big," he says, "But to us, it was this big, big house. To us, it was ...just home."

Bollesen said they got out the property that was most valuable and held the most memories.

"But then the little things," he said, "the things, I could just walk through my house and in my mind now, the stuff I would have grabbed. But I didn't know. I didn't know the house was going to blow up like that."

Bollesen said he and his family did everything to make sure the home was safe, including clearing all the brush around the home.