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Woman Drives Through Woolsey Fire to Save Horses: I Thought I Was Going to Die

If you wish to see what driving through hell must be like, look no further than any of the videos of the survivors of the California fires that firefighters are still struggling to contain.
View of driver going through the Woolsey Fire, Malibu, California 1 photo
Photo: Instagram / Rebecca Hackett
Rebecca Hackett is one of them, and she incidentally became a “hero” for rushing in a dangerous area to check on her horses and make sure they were ok. She lives in Agoura Hills, Malibu, engulfed by the Woolsey Fire as of last weekend.

She has a stable where she keeps horses and she knew it was in the path of the fire, so she decided to drive up there and see that the horses were rescued. On her way back in her car, she was engulfed by flames and it was only by sheer luck that she managed to get out alive, after what must have been the longest 2-minute drive of her life.

You can see the videos she posted once back to safety on her Instagram page. She explains that the fire “came out of nowhere” (i.e. she didn’t deliberately drive into it) and that she thought she wouldn’t survive because the sparks were all over and kept landing on her car.

Still, she made it through. Her videos have gone viral and she’s now using her newfound platform to get and organize help for her friends and other Malibu residents who have lost everything in the fire.

“I drove through flames for about two minutes. I thought I was going to die,” Rebecca says. “I felt the strongest wind I ever felt in my life. The fire came so quickly. One minute it was calm and then suddenly they were on top of us, so we had to evacuate.”

One of her videos, in which she’s literally driving through the fire, has also been shared by the Los Angeles Police Department on Twitter, as a warning “of the dangers of a fast moving fire and how important it is to leave affected areas after fire officials declare an evacuation order.”

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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