California Fire Chief Uses Milk and Beer To Save 2 Homes in Last-Ditch Effort After Finding No Water in Hose

He learned that his brother and family had already evacuated the town, but the fire chief — who has nearly 50 years of fire service under his belt — was horrified to find that his old stomping grounds had turned into “a total nightmare.”

Flames engulfed multiple homes in the neighborhood but the blaze hadn’t engulfed his brother’s property or the neighboring residence. Fennessy realized he had no water to battle the fire when he went to cool off the neighbor’s melting gas meter.

Fennessy said he then forced his way into the home to find anything to cool off the meter.

“I thought I’ll check the refrigerator and all that was in there was some milk and a couple beers,” the fire chief said.

“Went back out and kind of ran back there and cooled it off and pulled it back a little bit.”

Fennessy said the meter “wasn’t completely out,” and he “wasn’t sure if it was going to rekindle,” but it was all he “could do” at the moment to save the home.

However, his efforts were enough and the two homes were the only ones left standing on the black, according to the outlet.

Fennessy said that if he didn’t act and try to save the homes, it was “unlikely” any firefighters would arrive in time to prevent them from burning down with the rest of the neighborhood.

“We tell everybody call 911 and we’ll be there,” he said. “This was a situation (where) you call 911, it’s unlikely we were gonna be there.”

Fennessy believes that the recent fires in Southern California have changed everything, and the blazes tearing through the LA area could now be “our new reality.”

“This house-to-house, these urban conflagrations, we’re going start seeing them more and more,” he told the outlet.

Wildfires continue to rage in and around LA since the Palisades Fire was first reported on Jan. 7.

Dangerous Santa Ana winds have worsened fire conditions in Southern California since Wednesday.

More than 40,000 acres have been burned, destroying over 12,300 structures and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.

The Palisades Fire, the most destructive of the blazes that annihilated the star-studded coastal community of Pacific Palisades last week, was 27% contained, while the Eaton Fire burning outside Pasadena, Calif., was 55% contained as of early Friday morning, according to Cal Fire.

The deadly fires have killed at least 27 people and swept through residential communities.