Neighbors do what they can to save homes

Despite the raging fire above him, Gary Ward stood calmly on a dirt knoll spraying nearby homes with a garden hose.

He talked on his cell phone while firefighters kept one eye on him and one on the nearby flames. Neighbors stood just feet from him watching the fire spark up.

Ward said he used to live in one of the houses he was spraying. He planted the trees that now tower above him.

"It's a beautiful place," he said about the designer homes in Park View Estates, near Wildwood Canyon in Yucaipa.

About three years ago, Ward moved two and a half miles away. But he came back to his old neighborhood Monday to help.

As flames light up the night sky, Ward grabbed a hose and started drenching anything that could be saved, from a wooden patio cover to the nearby brush.

- lori.consalvo@inlandnewspapers.com