Firefighter John Stuhlman III and wife Monica.Photo:Courtesy of John Stuhlman III
Courtesy of John Stuhlman III
Los Angeles City Fire Inspector John Stuhlman III was running the command post monitoring the Palisades Fire on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
Around midnight, his wife called and asked him to come, but they were too busy, Stuhlman, 35 explains. Three hours later, she called again — a friend who only lived a few blocks away woke up to smoke in her bedroom and a fire in her kitchen. He needed to go.
Stuhlman, who has worked for the department for 23 years, says he was “fortunate enough” to have all his gear in the back of his [department] car." He’d need it.
He first tried to save his neighbors house, then his own.
“Then everything just blew up all at once," he says. “Palm trees exploded, the neighbor’s house exploded. The neighbors to the north, their house exploded.”
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He ran inside, grabbed a box of important documents and a bag and threw it in the car.
“I was going to go back in…but it was a lost cause,” he says. “I had to walk away from my house with my hands up in the air. And then I realized I stayed too long."
Firefighter John Stuhlman III.Courtesy of John Stuhlman III
Trying to leave his house was a harrowing experience. “There used to be a ride at Universal Studios called “Earthquake,” and that’s what it was like, power poles were coming down, a power line did hit my department vehicle and blew up. Trees were coming down.”
There were also people trying to enter the neighborhood. No one was doing traffic control, so he stopped his vehicle, identified himself and dove into helping about 20 people.
“There was zero visibility. They didn’t know what they were getting into,” he says. “Everyone said the same thing, ‘My house is up there.’ I said, ‘No, it’s not. Your house has gone along with mine. Everything’s gone.’ "
Hours after reconnecting with his wife Monica at a grocery store Starbucks, he tried to get back to his home. But everything around him “was just orange,” he says, adding, “there was no getting back up there.”
After fighting the fire, his eyes were swollen shut, and he had to go to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and facial burns, which became infected. He also injured his knee (when he was trying to get the embers off his neighbor’s house, the wind pushed him off the ladder and his knee hit something, it says).
It took days for the scope of his loss began to dawn on him.
“I wake up at three in the morning and I remember stuff [I wasn’t able to save],” he says. “Oh, dad’s Marine Corps ribbons. My Marine Corps ribbons. And then next morning I wake up, oh, grandpa’s coin collection. The next morning I wake up, oh, grandma’s china. Her wedding dress. Her wedding ring.”
Ultimately, he says the home itself isn’t what he really cares about. “It’s all the report cards I had since first grade, and all my grandma and grandpa’s 1923 pictures…you can’t replace that stuff.”
Fortunately, there were some things they did find in the rubble, like his dad’s dog tags, his own dog tags and Stuhlman’s wedding band.
They weren’t able to find his wife’s, but they did locate some melted gold, and he and his wife of 15 years are hoping a jeweler can smelt them and find the diamonds inside.
Firefighter John Stuhlman III and wife Monica.Courtesy of John Stuhlman III
For now, the couple is staying at a friend’s house in Monrovia with their 2-year-old English lab, Winston — and aGoFundMehas been established to help them rebuild.
“I’ve consoled people who have lost their homes. And I’ve saved, I don’t know how many people’s homes,” he says. “But I can’t save my own home. So that’s going to be sticking with me for a long time.”
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source: people.com
