When Tim Fritz saw the first plume of smoke, he knew it could be trouble. But, when he saw how fast it turned into an uncontrolled fire, he knew they had to get out.
"We just watched an entire wall of flame come over a couple of different peaks," Paradise Park resident Fritz said.
Fritz and his two sons then scrambled towards the flames to try to save a neighbor's house from burning.
"We put a sprinkler perimeter around their home," Fritz said.
"I was freaking out," eight-year-old Fritz said. "I knew I had to help my dad."
But, then the situation turned bad quickly.
"By then, the flames were in their meadow and we just had to run out of there as fast as they could," Fritz said. "It just expanded in acreage so fast and the wind is not helping. It is making it worse by the second."
Fritz and his boys then ran home and grabbed whatever they could save before the fire got there.
"We tried to get precious pictures and things of that nature," Fritz said. "The things that are pretty valuable."
Sol Fritz, 9, is worried he may never his home again.
"I don't know," Sol said. "Maybe we should get out of here."
"There's no question in my mind that some of those homes are gone," said Fritz. "We don't know if our home is still there right now. We have no idea."
But, they do know that even though this is part of living in the mountains, it's still not easy to accept.
"Just thinking about people and their homes and their existence," said Fritz. "It's just kind of a tough thing when people are about to lose everything they have."