Firefighter Went Home and Saw It Was Gone. Then He Told His Girlfriend He Was Going Back to Work

• A Los Angeles firefighting family lost their home in the Eaton Fire
• As the rest of their family evacuated, Captain Jerry Puga and his son initially stayed behind to help, before having to leave themselves
• His daughter Ally Puga, whose firefighter boyfriend went back to work after their home burned down, tells PEOPLE that her family’s story shows how “even in the face of tragedy” they “put other people in front of themselves

Los Angeles City Fire Department Captain Jerry Puga lost his home in the Eaton Fire — as did his firefighter son, his daughter and her boyfriend, who also works for the department.

The day the L.A. fires began coincided with Jerry’s first day back at work after having surgery.

Because he was assigned to “light duty,” Jerry, 50, couldn’t work a 24-hour shift, and after helping to deliver command vehicles to the Palisades he was sent home. After dinner, his wife told him she heard the Eaton Fire was spreading to Altadena.

“We looked out our window and we could see it,” says Jerry, who has been a firefighter for 22 years. “We just see the glow.”

His wife was concerned and asked if they should leave, but Jerry didn’t think the situation was that serious. “I was like, ‘No, we’re fine. The fire’s to the east, the wind is blowing east,’ ” he recalls.

When the power went out, he set up flashlights and told everybody to just go to sleep. But around 3 a.m., he woke up and smelled smoke.

He decided to get into his car and drive around to see where the fire was. As he drove toward the mountains, he saw the fire was still in the hills — but the wind had shifted and was now blowing in the direction of their house.

He called his wife and told her just to be safe, he wanted her and their daughter, Ally — whose boyfriend, Sam Smiley, is also a firefighter with the department and was on duty at the time — to pack an overnight bag and go to his sister’s house.

By the time he got home, it was raining fire in his backyard.

“My dad was like, ‘Run,’ ” remembers his daughter, Ally, a 30-year-old speech pathologist. “I fell like three times just running out the house. And then, there were these live wires from all the cables on the ground. So there were a lot of factors going on.”

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She saw neighbors across the street whose gates wouldn’t open because of the power.

Her 22-year-old brother Adrian was at home — and even though he couldn’t officially work because of a torn meniscus in his knee, she watched as he calmly sprang into action to help their frantic neighbors.

“My brother ran across the street and he was smashing the boxes, so the gates could swing open and people could leave,” Ally says.

Her father and brother helped Ally and her mother get into the car — but stayed behind to help neighbors and fight the fire.

Armed with garden hoses, Puga and his son tried to protect their home, but after 15 minutes the embers raining in his yard were too intense.

“My neighbors house is already on fire, and that’s when I realized how fast and strong this is coming. I told my son, ‘There is no way we’re going to do anything with our garden hose,’ ” he recalls. “And I say, ‘Let’s just get the keys, let’s get in the cars, and take off.’ “

A few hours later, they returned home to see if there was anything left, but it “was completely destroyed,” Puga says.

He and his son drove around the neighborhood putting out small fires and seeing if anyone needed help. “For the most part, the town was a ghost town,” he adds. “Most of it burned down.”

In the days since, Jerry Puga has been finding it hard to believe his home is gone.

“I went back to my house every morning after that fire, thinking that I was going to see something different. I think I was in denial and just disbelief, and sometimes even a little bit of embarrassment because I was like, ‘How can my house burn down? This is my job. This is what I do,’ ” he says. “Talking to coworkers who were at the fire with the proper pumps, proper hose lines, even they tell me that it was very hard to protect properties because it was just so intense.”

The morning after the fire, Ally called her boyfriend and told her their home had burned down. He told his Captain, was released from duty and came home.

But once he came back and saw “there was nothing left” he made a decision: he was going back to work.

“He was like, ‘There’s nothing to salvage, nothing to save. I’m going to go back.’ So he went back [to work] for like five, six days straight,” Ally recalls. “He said, ‘I can provide a service, I’m needed, I’m going to go.’ “

Ally, who has set up a GoFundMe to help her family, says she has always been proud of her dad, brother and boyfriend and the work they do helping others — but this was the first time she saw them in action.

“They put other people in front of themselves, they’re protectors, and they’re very courageous,” she says. “Even in the face of tragedy, they’re like, “Okay, this is what we do. Jump into action.’ They’re all very selfless.”

Click here to learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.