Aria Phillips thought she might never see her wedding ring again.
But even on their engagement anniversary, that was low on her list of concerns as she drove her Prius through orange smoke and falling branches of flames. It was a chaotic Wednesday morning, with conflicting orders flying around as a wildfire ripped through a residential neighborhood in Camarillo, burning homes, fields and trees.
Phillips had just finished work that morning to check on her 18-year-old dog, Little Miss, and turn on the sprinklers when she first heard about the fire.
It started quite far away. To reach her three-story home on East Highland Drive in Camarillo Heights, the fire would have to jump over Highway 118, across fields and then over a mountain.
A Morongo Fire Department truck passed Aria Phillips’ home in the Camarillo Heights neighborhood Saturday. The home of Ms Phillips, her husband and their 18-year-old rescue dog Little Miss was completely destroyed in the wildfire.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
But by the time she checked her home, everything had changed. The sky has turned completely orange. It’s getting hotter and the wind is getting stronger.
“Baby, there’s fire here. I don’t know how. Here it is,” she told her husband over the phone. “We didn’t even have a fire engine in our neighborhood yet.”
She grabbed her dog and some cellphone chargers and tried to leave, but firefighters told her it was too late. The only road leading out of the neighborhood was hit by the fire. Ash was falling from the sky.
Phillips said firefighters told her it was safer to stay home at that point.
It wasn’t long before the house began to fill with thick smoke. Her husband instructed her to get a gas mask. When she stepped outside, another firefighter saw her. This time the instructions were very different.
A wind-driven wildfire started in Camarillo on Wednesday, destroying homes and the surrounding landscape.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“I must go now, now, now, now,” he cried.
When she left the house and closed the door, Phillips saw embers pouring into the house. She thought the house was going to catch fire.
“I didn’t want to burn alive in my house and die,” she said.
Phillips threw Little Miss into his car and drove out of the driveway onto the burning East Highland Drive. The trees surrounding the street were on fire, burning branches falling onto her car and into the street. She couldn’t see anything because of the smoke. The road on one side drops into a steep cliff. The car was overheating. She rolled over a burning log.
A wind-driven wildfire burned homes on Valley Vista Drive in Camarillo on Wednesday, with embers igniting the ground and wooden fence.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“You can’t see anything and just hope for the best. I was hyperventilating in the car. My husband was on the phone. He was like, ‘You can do this,'” she said. I remembered. “It was a complete miracle. I don’t know how I made it through that situation without falling off a cliff or being burned alive.”
There was little time to rejoice at her escape.
They learned Wednesday night that their house had been completely destroyed by fire. There was nothing left. To further intensify the pain of the loss, the fire occurred on the couple’s third engagement anniversary.
Phillips was unable to grab her wedding ring when she fled the house. It was in a drawer in the bathroom on the second floor.
And that drawer, like the rest of the house around it, was reduced to ashes.
Ontario firefighters are helping Alia Phillips and her husband dig items out of the rubble of their home in Camarillo Heights.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Capt. Kevin May and his crew from the East Fork Fire Protection District drove in from Douglas County, Nevada, to assist in the firefighting efforts.
Thursday, his engine was assigned to East Highland Drive in Camarillo Heights. They were tasked with quelling hot spots and flare-ups. The main goal was to save three of the seven houses that had not burned down the previous day.
Throughout the day, May spoke with residents who had returned to the neighborhood to assess the damage. He saw a couple living at 711 East Highland Drive. There wasn’t much he could do for them. Their home was lost.
“I offered to look for the safe and whatever they might have that was lost in the rubble,” May said.
However, the couple did not have a safe.
“She said, ‘All I care about is the ring, the wedding ring,'” May said.
Alia Phillips and her 18-year-old rescue dog, Little Miss, at her home in Camarillo Heights on Saturday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
May told Phillips that he and his crew would look for it. But he told her not to get her hopes up.
“It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack than a ring in this house,” he told the couple.
Still, firefighters got to work. They dug through the still-hot ashes and took up position in what the couple believed was a bathroom. Then the detective work began.
They discovered the twisted frame of a couch that may have been on the floor above the bathroom. They rummaged through more debris and eventually found a bathroom sink faucet.
“We really started to feel like maybe we were in the right spot,” May said.
Captain Kevin May helped find Alia Phillips’ wedding ring in the rubble of her burned-out Camarillo Heights home.
(Anthony Arellanes)
Then, earrings. When May showed it to Phillips, she said it had come from the same drawer as the ring. Let’s dig deeper.
The couple said the bathroom counter was lined with plywood stone. bracelet. tweezers. It’s getting warmer.
“They probably found the ring within 60 seconds,” May said.
It was hot in the ash, so May kept it in her glove until it cooled down. He presented it to Phillips. It was dirty and full of soot. But it didn’t lose its shape. All the diamonds were still in place.
“It slipped right into her finger,” May said.
The entire search took approximately 10 minutes.
Aria Phillips and her husband at the site of their home on Saturday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“The chances were very low and we all knew that. It happened so quickly it was unbelievable,” May said.
It’s just as important to Phillips as it is to firefighters, May said. They couldn’t help much. By the time they reached the street, everything was already on fire.
Later that night, May’s engine ended up back in the couple’s driveway, where they parked for dinner. It felt like it was just the place. The couple left, but firefighters returned.
May pulled out her cell phone and sent a message to Phillips.
“Thank you for including us in that moment,” he said.
