Armando and Carmen Berriz were enjoying a vacation at a rental house in Santa Rosa, California with their daughter, Monica Ocon, her husband, Luis Ocon, and their daughter when the fire began.
The family raced out of the house at around 1 a.m., Luis in one car, Monica and her daughter in another and the Berrizes behind them. Luis, Monica and their daughter made it to the bottom of the ridge, but Armando and Carmen’s car was blocked by debris. The couple ran back to the house and jumped in the pool, where they stayed for hours as the fire burned around them.
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Armando held onto the side of the pool, burning his hand, and Carmen, 75, held onto her husband.
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“They were a team,” Luis Ocon told CNN. “They counted on each other.”
Carmen, who had a history of lung problems, passed away in her husband’s arms at around 7 a.m. Her family believes smoke inhalation was her cause of death.
Armando stayed with his wife for hours until the fire died down, asking to borrow her shoe because he had lost his. He then made his way down the ridge and received treatment for his burns at a nearby hospital.
“He was consoling us instead of us consoling him,” Luis said. “He was amazing and full of strength.”
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Armando has been released from the hospital and is recovering at his home in Salinas, California, although he “he hasn’t begun the emotional recovery,” Monica said.
Armando and Carmen met as children in Cuba over 60 years ago and were married for 55 years.
“Those two together were one person, and the love they had for each other was something that everybody has always admired and loved,” Monica told CBS Los Angeles.
Carmen is one of the 31 people killed from more than 20 fires raging across Northern California.
Photo Credit: Twitter / @nycjim
