In their own words: Malabar family loses home to fast-moving fire

Why oh why wouldn't they start packing the important stuff when they saw black smoke even NEAR their home in a wooded area?!?! I mean, he could see the fire down the road at 2:30, and by 5 it was at his house? Yet, they were able to save nothing? In 2 1/2 hours they could have probably had about 4 truck-loads of stuff to safety, at least - especially if his wife had a truck, which was mentioned in his retelling of the events.

For those of you even in the area of the fires - Pack your stuff and be ready. I'm sure this guy would be happy to just be unpacking his stuff right now, laughing about how he always "over prepares", if he could...

My thoughts also. Why didn't they get stuff out of the house? At least their son was smart. It easier when you know it's coming, but when you don't know it's harder. I feel bad for the people that has lost their homes and everything they have work so hard for all of these years.

Darn Crist and amendment 1.

Would of, Should of, Could of.
There was many things that they would, should or could have done but they did what they thought best under the pressure - at first tried to save the house and then ultimately saved what was most important - themselves.

Please don't criticize any of these people, they have enough sadness in their life at the moment.

My prayers are with them all, including the firefighters. God Speed.

History is taught in schools for a reason. Wisdom is saught for a reason...

That being said, I would not wish this upon my worst enemy. I cannot imagine losing everything, but I also cannot imagine just letting it happen because of a lack of foresight. These people had hours to plan. Many were not even that lucky. Maybe my comments, in pointing out what could have been done with help someone not get caught in a situation like this, hence my final statement.

Please people of Palm Bay, Cocoa, Daytona, and anywhere else that has dense woods/preserves within a mile, be prepared to pack everything in moment's notice.

Personally, I live near Chuluota. I am surrounded by dense wood. My stuff is packed, and you better bet that if I see smoke, I'm going to grab pets and important papers first, and I'm going to take as many truck loads of stuff to and from friends/family houses as time will allow.