With Water Shut Off, Man Fights Fire in Atypical Way

Thank goodness for Bud Light
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 25, 2020 2:05 AM CDT
California Man Defends Home From Wildfire With Bud Light
Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires jump Interstate 80 in Vacaville, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.   (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

As the flames from the wildfires currently raging in Northern California approached his home, Chad Little protected it in an unlikely way: with Bud Light. Little stayed behind to defend his Vacaville home as the LNU Lightning Complex Fires came closer, planning to use firehoses and fire hydrants—until the irrigation district shut the water off. As the fire approached his workshop, he grabbed a 30-pack of Bud Light. "That was the only thing I had that I had a lot of, and it was wet," he tells the Mercury News. He used a nail to puncture holes in the cans. At first, "I was shaking them up and opening them up but it was just dispersing too quick,” he says. “When I saw that nail, I would just puncture a hole and shake as I was going, and I could aim it and concentrate on the bad parts (of the fire)."

"Luckily, I had a bunch of cases of Bud Light and I was able to get it out," he says. Then a fire truck came through and helped douse another fire that had ignited at his carport. Ultimately, that fire rekindled, and the carport burned down, but his house was spared. Little is still on the property, piping in water from the irrigation district to his neighbors' properties to extinguish hot spots. As of Monday night, the fires had consumed 351,817 acres across five counties, KCRA reports. At least five people have died and more than 900 structures have been destroyed, with more than 30,000 other structures still threatened. The fires, which ignited due to lightning strikes on Aug. 17 and are now the state's third-biggest wildfire incident ever, are 25% contained. (More California wildfires stories.)

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