Los Angeles wildfire victim died holding hose while trying to defend home
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Victor Shaw, 66, found on roadside the morning after refusing to evacuate in order to stay and fight blaze threatening family’s residence in Altadena. A 66-year-old man has become the first fataility of the Los Angeles County wildfires to be identified after his family discovered his body lying on the road outside of his home clutching the hosepipe he had been using in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames.
![[The late Victor Shaw’s home in Altadena in Los Angeles, Calfornia]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/09/11/Screenshot-2025-01-09-11.30.05-AM.jpg)
“When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back, and I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm – I had to save myself,” Shari Shaw told the network. “And I looked behind me, and the house was starting to go up in flames, and I had to leave.”.
The family revealed that Victor Shaw suffered from health problems that made moving difficult but had been determined to defend the family home, which was built in 1964 and which they had owned for more than half a century. Al Tanner, a friend of the Shaws, described discovering Shaw’s body on Wednesday morning.
“It looks like he was trying to save the home that his parents had for almost 55 years,” Tanner said. “I fell to the ground, and I didn’t know – I didn’t want to look at him,” Shari Shaw said. “They just told me that he was lying on the ground and that he looked serene, as if he was at peace.”.
