Clare Chapman

Clare Chapman

When fires raced towards the Chapman’s home, their plan was to head down the mountain to safety. While his wife made it down the mountain successfully, Clare Chapman was left trapped at his home. Clare fought the fire that was threatening his property, ultimately shielding himself from flames with a garden hose. Watch as Clare, his wife, and their neighbor describe the harrowing fight with fire as well as the precautions they took to defend their home from flames.

On protecting his home:
“It was July 20 and it had started out as a clear skies, warm day. It was probably about 95 degrees when I first realized I was in serious threat of losing my home. I told Anne that I would be right behind her. I would bring the pick up and I would be following her shortly. I rushed out to try and get into the pick up and in the time that it took me just to open the door and think about turning around, I realized it was too late. At that point I thought about going into the basement of the house but I was reluctant to abandon the house to the flames. It was simply too hot for me where I was trying to defend the house so I ran out into the middle of the lawn with the hose and simply squatted down and put the hose up over my head and sprayed myself at that point.”

On preparing their home:
“I was able to make it because I had a good water supply and because we had done some planning ahead of time. We, together with about seven or eight neighbors, had participated in this project to thin the trees from around our property into the woods about 100 to 150 feet. And in addition to that having a lot of green grass which I used to curse, but on July 20, I was thrilled with this lawn. I was so happy I had a lot of green grass around the border of the house that kept the fire at bay.”

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