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Man and his mother miraculously survive Camp Fire after staying behind

Posted at 1:30 AM, Dec 06, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-06 03:30:52-05

PARADISE, Calif. – It’s been almost a month since the Camp Fire tore through Paradise, destroying thousands of homes and buildings.

Despite mandatory evacuation orders, some people, like Brad Weldon and his mother, refused to leave.

"Just about everybody lost everything. Gone, everything burnt up," Brad Weldon told KTXL.

Almost a month after flames tore through Paradise, Weldon and his mother, Norma, are still living in their home – the last one left on their block.

"When we told her the fire was coming she said, 'I ain’t leaving. Let me burn,'" Weldon explained.

Fighting the flames with a garden hose and buckets of pool water, he was able to save his home and his mother. He says it took a little help from above.

"My wife, she passed three years ago. Her angel was there," he said.

When the fire passed, they again refused to leave their home, despite the widespread destruction that now surrounds them.

His area was still under evacuation orders Tuesday, so if he leaves town he won’t be allowed back in. For almost a month now, they’ve been surviving off of stored food and power from their generator.

He’s even worked out running water and plumbing by using water from his pool.

"The pump sucks the water out of the pool, runs it through the hose, which goes over and reverses and hooks back into the plumbing," Weldon said.

Weldon said he’s always prepared for the worst.

"My mother taught me, 'Take care of things. Be prepared. Have food, have shelter, have water. Take care of your stuff,'" he told KTXL.

But as days turn into months, he’s relying on firefighters to bring him supplies, as well as on other neighbors who have been able to sneak through roadblocks. He calls them "the underground."

"Fuel shows up all the time on the underground," Weldon said.

They are hoping evacuation orders will be lifted in their area soon but the sheriff’s office has not released a timeline. So, they rely on faith that they’ll make it through, knowing they have each other to lean on.

"She’s everything to me. I’m going to take care of her 'til she dies," Weldon said of his mother. "She’s fine, I'm fine. The house is fine, the dogs are fine. I don’t see why we can’t just go on living a normal life."

Weldon is hoping his neighbors will come back and rebuild the town. But no matter what, he says Paradise is home and he’s not leaving.