Trial by Fire: Profiles of Survivors in Southern California

SAN DIEGO –- When he came home with a new electric saw last month, José Luis Lozada says the purchase led to an argument with his wife. "'Why are you wasting your money on that?' she asked me,” Lozada recalls. “But who could have known that this saw would save our lives?"
Lozada and his wife’s house sits on top of a mountain in the rural area of Escondido, Calif. And no one told them to evacuate.

The couple evacuated their home when they began to suffocate from the dense smoke. It was 1:00 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 22, and they did not see a soul in the town where they live.

The road was blocked by fallen, half-burned trees. Lozada, a landscaper, asked his wife to drive while he used the saw to clear a path for the car.

"We were scared, but the survival instinct helped us," he said. The couple found refuge in a shelter at Escondido's high school.

Calmly eating lunch on Wednesday, he said he has survived two disasters. The other was the Mexico City earthquake on Sept. 19, 1985, when thousands died and his building in Colonia Roma collapsed.

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