While countless other homes and businesses were destroyed in the fiery inferno that is engulfing Southern California and is fueled by politicians’ idiocy, one “warrior” brain surgeon saved his own home and his neighbors’ in absolutely spectacular fashion.
The scale of the loss and devastation in California is difficult to comprehend, but there are bright spots of heroism amidst the death, destruction, and tragedy. Chester Griffiths is one such. According to the UK Telegraph, this 62-year-old Los Angeles brain surgeon calmly finished a surgery, drove to his beachfront property, and saved homes on his Malibu cul-de-sac from the fiery inferno.
Watch Dr. Griffiths, his son, and neighbor heroically save their homes from the CA fire, via The Telegraph pic.twitter.com/bobH7bZ6To
— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) January 12, 2025
Griffiths, unlike California authorities, had long been prepared for a huge fire. He had done training, he had worked out a plan with his son and neighbor, and he had sourced fire hoses. Now the surgeon was ready to take action.
What followed was a daring mission that saw the three men confront the worst inferno in the city’s history to successfully protect six homes in their picturesque cul-de-sac, while houses around them crumbled into a mess of ash and rubble…
Even as 80mph hurricane-level winds brought sheets of embers the size of footballs raining down, they continued to fight.
Clayton Colbert had a moment of doubt before he decided to stay as Griffiths was staying to fight for his property. “At one point I started packing up my car and then I just decided I’m just not gonna let my house burn down, no matter what,” he told the Telegraph.
For five nights and four days, the men donned N95 masks and used spades and fire hoses to keep the fire from consuming their homes.
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While aiming his hose at a nearby burned house, Colbert (who missed his kidney surgery while keeping fire and thieves at bay) stated emphatically, “Without a doubt, if we weren’t here, none of our houses would be. There’s not even a 1 per cent chance.”
The men’s diciest moment came on Wednesday night, when the fire barrelled towards them from the west, engulfing two of their neighbours’ wooden homes and sending them up in flames within 20 minutes.
First went the house two doors along from Dr Griffiths on Topanga Beach Drive, as the inferno made eucalyptus trees explode. Then the next one went up “like a Roman candle”… The trio responded by jumping on nearby roofs, spraying the flames and using dirt and sand to put out any fires on the ground. They got blown over several times, buckling under the power of the 80mph gusts.
Griffiths said, “Everything was coming this way. The fire was coming this way, the smoke, the embers in the air, the wind was unbelievable.…Softball-sized pieces on fire were landing around us, it was almost apocalyptic. It’s like, you see these things coming at you, and they land on the ground. Thank God, the majority will not go on the house, but the ones that do, you put out immediately. But if no one is here to do that, then they eventually burn the house down.”
But, according to him, he wasn’t scared. “I’m a surgeon,” he explained. “You train and you prepare, and then when you’re in the thick of it, you rely on your training and your preparedness. Our exit strategy was paddle boards out into the ocean. We knew that if it really came to s---... we could just take them out. There was no time to be scared.”
The surgeon’s son praised him as a “champion” with a “warrior mentality.”
Dr. Chester Griffiths (left, below), a brain surgeon from Malibu, demonstrated remarkable bravery during the recent wildfires that threatened his neighborhood. As the fires approached, he, along with his son and a neighbor, took decisive action to protect their homes. Equipped… pic.twitter.com/wp8DZB1Oti
— Rich Tehrani (@rtehrani) January 12, 2025
Griffiths and Colbert, whose hair caught fire at one point, worked to save others’ houses as well as their own. “We were only able to do this because we’re a tight-knit community,” Griffiths said, expressing his hope that other people will learn to build relationships with their neighbors.
Even amidst the most hellish nightmares, the American spirit shines undaunted. Dr. Griffiths and his son and neighbor are truly champions and warriors.
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