(KTLA) — One of the five confirmed fatalities from the destructive Eaton Fire was identified on Wednesday morning when his family found his body on the side of the road by their home – with a garden hose still in his hand.
According to his loved ones, 66-year-old Victor Shaw died trying to defend the home that had been in his family for nearly 55 years.
As of Wednesday night, Shaw’s body was still on his family’s property as conditions were not yet safe enough for the coroner’s office to retrieve him.
Victor Shaw lived in that home with his younger sister, Shari Shaw, who said that she tried to get him to evacuate with her on Tuesday night as the fire moved toward them.
Those close to Victor Shaw said he had some health problems that prevented him from moving around very well.
As she was running out the door, Shari Shaw said her brother told her he wanted to stay behind and try to fight the fire.
“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 Nexstar’s KTLA. “And I looked behind me, and the house was starting to go up in flames, and I had to leave.”
A family friend, Al Tanner, told KTLA that the next morning, they found Victor Shaw’s charred body on the side of the road with the hose.
“It looks like he was trying to save the home that his parents had for almost 55 years,” said Tanner.
“I fell to the ground, and I didn’t know – I didn’t want to look at him,” said Shari Shaw. “They just told me that he was lying on the ground and that he looked serene, as if he was at peace.”
As of early morning Thursday, the cause of the 10,600-acre Eaton Fire remained under investigation.
The Eaton Fire was one of several large, active wildfires in the Los Angeles area. The largest, the 17,234-acre Palisades Fire, destroyed an estimated 1,000 structures. A separate 855-acre fire, the Hurst Fire, burned in the L.A. neighborhood of Sylmar. A fast-moving fire in the Antelope Valley called the Lidia Fire has burned at least 348 acres and forced evacuations. Crews have made progress on the 43-acre Sunset Fire which forced rapid evacuations in the Hollywood Hills.
