As wildfires ravaged the Pacific Palisades, a man undertook a heroic rescue effort, navigating through smoke and embers on an uphill drive to save a woman and her pets from imminent danger.
Caleb Serban-Lawler, a Los Angeles-based producer, found himself in the midst of the massive Palisades Fire—the largest of the blazes sweeping through Southern California—on the evening of January 7. Faced with a critical moment, he sprang into action to help those in need.
"The first half of the day I was watering roofs with neighbors trying to keep fire out as much as possible," Serban-Lawler tells PEOPLE exclusively, adding that he began heading out of the area at sunset "when everything took a turn for the [worse]."
A woman "ran up" to his truck "asking for help," frantically explaining that her car would not start as she attempted to evacuate with her pets. "All I could do was imagine my own mother," the producer says.
The pivotal moment and the events that followed were all captured in unfiltered footage that Serban-Lawler later shared on Instagram.
In the intense video, the producer checks in on the woman, asking if she’s alright. She explains that her car won’t start, leaving her trapped in the garage with all four of her dogs inside. Without hesitation, Serban-Lawler offered to help.
Together, they climbed into his truck and made their way back up the mountain to her house. As they drove through thick smoke and flying embers—conditions so severe that visibility was nearly zero—they pressed on to rescue the dogs. Along the way, flames could be seen raging on both sides of the road, adding to the danger.
Finally, the video shows the duo reaching the woman's car and loading her dogs into the truck. As they evacuated the pets, Serban-Lawler tells PEOPLE, her next door neighbor's home "was already in flames."
As they made their way back down the mountain, the group encountered devastating sights, including charred vehicles and trees engulfed in flames.
Eventually, three of the dogs were moved into another vehicle, per Serban-Lawler. "This reporter let me put 3 of the dogs in her car while we rearranged one," he wrote on Instagram, noting that they had to separate the pets because "he doesn't get along with the other 3 dogs."
The producer added that the pups and the woman ultimately relocated to a friend's house shortly after the rescue, writing, "All 4 dogs and her owner made it out safe, and nobody was harmed!"
And the owner couldn't believe that she made it out safely. "I don't know how you drove, you couldn't see anything," she told Serban-Lawler in the video. "I'm so grateful that I'm alive. I thought I was going to die. Thank you so much."
"She kept telling me how I saved her life and that she would have [ended up] dead with her pets in her home if I didn't help her and that I was a hero. I don't think I'm a hero at all," Serban-Lawler tells PEOPLE. "Honestly, I was just doing the right thing, and I believe we need more people in the world willing to help like this."
The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, also took to social media to share her perspective on the ordeal.
In an Instagram post, the dog owner wrote that she had been ready to evacuate "with everything loaded in my car" when it "went completely dead," leaving her in a near-hopeless situation.
"No one was around or allowed in," she wrote, adding that she got "no help from 911."
So, the pet owner "ran down the hill in full panic and saw a truck," she continued. "He actually came up my street by mistake and was making a [U-turn] to go back down as my hands slammed his car to stop."
"If it wasn't for him, me and my 4 dogs would've died," she continued. "Me and my pups will be forever grateful to a true hero, Caleb @calebserbanlawler who just happened to be volunteering on that deadly horrific day💕🙏."
Source: People