If a fire needs fighting, it’s good to have a watery liquid to hand that isn’t especially precious.
That formula certainly worked for one California man, who is feeling glad that all the DIPAs were drunk the night before after he managed to use a pack of Bud Light to stop his property going up in flames.
With massive wildfires sweeping parts of the state, Chad Little’s family started packing their things to escape the largest: the so-called LNU Lightning complex in the wine-growing regions of Napa and Sonoma north of San Francisco.
However, the brave Vacaville homeowner chose to stay put to protect his property, which he had almost finished rebuilding after an attic fire five years ago.
“This happens, and I’m like, ‘No, I can’t. I can’t let it go,’” Little told KCRA.
As the fire approached his home last Wednesday, Little was all set to try to beat back the blaze with hoses stationed around the property – that is, until the water was turned off.
He frantically started raking up dry grass to contain the spread, as he watched the inferno torch his cars and the flames begin to lick at his workshop.
“It was burning on the wood down low, and I didn’t have any water,” Little told the station. “I had one barrel with a little bit of water in it, and I tried using that. It didn’t work.”
Forgoing the urge to slake his own thirst in the heat and panic, the wildfire warrior seized upon the only liquid he had to hand: a 36-pack of Bud Light.
“When I ripped up the sheet metal, it had a nail, so I was just shaking it up, popping it just and spraying them, popping it out and grabbing another one,” Little told the outlet. ”My buddies all tease me about drinking water beer, and I say, ‘Hey, saved my shop.’”
Luckily for Little, the fire department arrived just as he’d finished putting out the flames around his workshop with the last drop of brew.
So far, at least seven people have died in wildfires across Northern California sparked by lightning strikes during a heatwave.