Mendiola spends long hours carving tikis. “What I made is priceless,” he said. This San Diego Country Estates homeowner was home Wednesday afternoon, working on one of his tikis, when he noticed a plume of smoke rising from the mountain behind his backyard. “Just a few minutes later, a helicopter flew over, and the smoke got bigger,” Mendiola said. He tried using the water hose to keep the fire from reaching his home, but he said it reached his backyard in a matter of seconds. “I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe,” Mendiola said. The fire came just feet away from his home. It quickly engulfed his little island paradise in smoke, scorching his patio deck and artwork and singeing his neighbor’s camper. On July 22, the Creelman Fire in Ramona quickly grew to over 340 acres, prompting evacuations.  “You can see my tikis,” he said. “This is a place where we gather all our family and friends, whether it’s a celebration, graduation, party, and we just kick it out here. Just break out the Ukuleles and guitars and you know just feel that island vibe,” Mendiola said. This is what the patio looked like before the fire. Although the fire came just feet away from his home, it didn’t damage it. However, the fire quickly engulfed his little Island Paradise gazebo, destroying all his artwork and singeing his neighbor’s camper. He thanks the fire crews for saving their home and the homes all along the mountainside. “These are just things. They can always be replaced. The most important thing is we could have tried to save this house and died. You know, but when we got kicked out, we had no choice but to leave and just pray,” Mendiola said. When he came back, he was happy to find the two tikis he was working on intact. “Carving these two guys and seeing them when I came back, it was a joyful feeling,” Mendiola said. He knows rebuilding his island paradise will take time, but he’s planning to make it even better than before. Mendiola said something he learned from this experience is to have your neighbors’ contact information so you can reach them and look out for each other. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less