A California man was overcome with emotion after he returned to his home he thought would be destroyed by the wildfires, only to find that it was almost entirely untouched.
In the video shared to TikTok, Enrique El Rey recorded his view as he walked up an Altadena street to his home. On the opposite side of the street, homes had been reduced to barren structures with just pieces of walls or chimneys left.
“From what I could see, every house is burnt down on my block except for my house,” he said as he turned the camera to show the tree in front alive and well, and the blue walls of his home unscathed.
El Rey can be heard sniffling and tearing up as he takes in how lucky he was.
“Why do I deserve this? I don’t know, I don’t think I deserve this. God bless everybody else,” he says, choking up.
The man explains that he was not even sure if he was covered by insurance. As he takes in the damage to the houses surrounding him, he expresses his disbelief again.
“How could this even be true? Everybody behind me is burned down,” El Rey said.
The man then goes on to show the wood he had been using to build an extension on the house was now in a charred pile. However, the wood that had already been attached to the frame remained standing.
El Rey noted that there was some damage to his garage, as the door and roof were a bit burned, but the structure was largely still intact.
As the man continued to thank God for his luck, dozens of users congratulated him and celebrated his story.
“Survivors guilt is real. Thank God and you are blessed,” one user commented. “This is a miracle!” another user wrote. “You are one lucky man,” a third user commented.
In a follow-up video, El Rey shared that firefighters told him that his home was “literally the only house standing on the block.”
More than 12,300 buildings have been destroyed as several wildfires have burned across more than 40,000 acres in greater Los Angeles County. As of Monday, thousands of residents still remain under evacuation warnings.
Originally published by Latin Times.
