2 Burned CA Fire in Hot Tub - At least 1 is Hero not Idiot

[RamboLiberal]

Sometimes we here and on TV are too quick to judge as is the Governator. There's more to the story. This guy even climbed out his hospital bed to try to confront Schwarnegger. His neighbors back him up and credit him with staying to warn them as saving their lives.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other authorities held them up as examples of irresponsible behavior. They were the butt of jokes. But one of the two Big Tujunga Canyon residents who jumped into a hot tub to escape the raging Station fire says they are being unfairly judged.

Julius Goff, who suffered serious burns, told The Times that he did not ignore a mandatory evacuation order but instead stayed behind to warn 10 neighbors who did not receive the order to leave. By the time he reached his own house, with plans to get his housemate and get out, the fire had surrounded them.

Trapped, the men ran screaming through 50-to-100-foot flames to what they saw as their best hope: the only pool of water within reach.

Later, Goff watched in tears from a hospital bed as they were repeatedly castigated on TV. Then he learned that everything he owned was lost in the fire.

"I'm not some idiot who ignores the evacuation order," Goff said Sunday as he surveyed the piles of debris and ash, which are all that remain of the two-story house. "I got a 10-year-old son. I don't want to die."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-station-fire-victims6-2009oct06,0,3826651,full.story


Julius Goff, right, who was seriously burned after he and a housemate took refuge in a hot tub, hugs Trevor Pullen, who was evacuated before the Station fire descended on their Big Tujunga Canyon neighborhood. "This guy saved my life," Pullen said. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / October 5, 2009)