With No Water Left, Man Grabs Cans of Bud Light and Helps Save Home from Wildfire
Dealing with insurance companies is one of life’s greatest miseries. As a general rule of thumb, it’s an annoying and head-scratching process, and you’re as likely to find someone who enjoys paying taxes.
Chad Little from Vacaville, California, knows all about that, as he’s spent nearly five years wrestling with insurance after an attic fire destroyed his family’s home.
An agreement was reached, and the home has almost been restored.
Perhaps that’s why, when the flames of the LNU Lightning Complex wildfire began to dance in the distance Wednesday morning, Little decided to stay behind and fight to protect his home.
“I had a lot of friends and family trying to fight with me to get me to leave, but I wasn’t gonna do it,” he said, according to The Mercury News.
“I spent five years getting to this point. I’m not going to start over from ground one.”
To heck with catchphrases: Little was not going to let this second fire claim his home.
There was only one problem as the flames got closer — the water had been turned off. Little was clearing debris, but without a consistent supply of water, his chances didn’t look good.
“I didn’t have any water,” he told KCRA-TV in Sacramento. “I had one barrel with, like, a little bit of water in it, and I tried using that. It didn’t work.”
As his cars caught fire and the blaze reached his shop, Little realized he did have one last option: a 30-pack of Bud Light beer.
“That was the only thing I had that I had a lot of, and it was wet,” he said. “Luckily, I had a bunch of cases of Bud Light and I was able to get it out.”
He broke into the case and used an exposed nail on the shop’s siding to split the cans and douse the flames — basically shotgunning beer to protect his property.
“When I first grabbed the cans of beer and ran down there, I was shaking them up and opening them up but it was just dispersing too quick,” Little explained. “When I saw that nail, I would just puncture a hole and shake as I was going, and I could aim it and concentrate on the bad parts” of the fire.
Adding “part time firefighter” to our resume.
— Bud Light (@BudLightCA) August 24, 2020
A firetruck soon arrived, putting Little at ease. His house was saved.
Since then, he has spent his time putting out hot spots and spot fires — but with water he’s helped pipe in, not with beer.
Still, this is a light-hearted story during a stressful time, and it gives Little the last laugh.
“My buddies always tease me about, uh, you know, drinking water beer, and I say, ‘Hey, saved my shop.'”
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