Former Miss California Tried to Save Her House with a Hose as L.A. Fires 'Exploded,' Then Help Arrived (Exclusive)

• Sherrie Crumpler, a former Miss California, says she she wasn't able to grab most of belongings as she was being evacuated from her Malibu home by authorities

• She was later taken to a fire station where she rested, was given food, a warm jacket and a blanket

• “I'm trying to think of what plan God has for me now, and how do I make use of that,” Crumpler tells PEOPLE

A 79-year-old woman who survived the Pacific Palisades fire described what she saw as a “holocaust” and “Armageddon” — quite different from the 1993 California wildfires she previously witnessed.

“This was not the one I experienced,” Sherrie Crumpler tells PEOPLE in an interview at Los Angeles’ West Recreation Center on Wednesday, Jan. 8, after she was safely evacuated. “And in this case, I kept watching the fire coming over the top of our canyon and it kept getting out. I mean, I could see the smoke, and then the smoke got orange. Then I knew it was fire, and it was powerful. And then all of a sudden I saw things start going up in flames, like homes.”

A retiree and former Miss California 1965, Crumpler, who lived in the Malibu neighborhood of Big Rock, says she first heard about the Palisades Fire on Tuesday morning.  Then around 3:30 p.m. that day, a sheriff stopped by her home and told her that the fire jumped.

Related: Woman Who Evacuated L.A. Fires Is 'Haunted' by Watching 'Little Kids and Their Little Backpacks Running for Help' (Exclusive)

What made evacuating difficult for Crumpler at first was the fact that she has scoliosis, back issues and walks with a cane.

“I was trying to take a hose and put out the hot spots,” she recalls of trying to prepare her home before leaving. “The wind was so bad. [My ficus hedge] caught on fire. I thought, ‘Well, I'll put that out.' So I put the water on it and it exploded, and it was like a ball of fire that blew up in the air, and all these pieces started coming down on me. So my hair got burned.”

Soon it became dark after the electricity was turned off, Crumpler says. She called the authorities for help and carried a lantern so they could spot her when firefighters arrived. At the time, her house was not on fire, but the firefighters feared the worst could happen.

“My purse was in the car and the car was unlocked,” Crumpler remembers. ”I said [to the firefighters], ‘Let me just turn around and get my purse.’ And they said, ‘No, you're going with us now.' And I said, ‘But my ID, my little bit of cash, my credit cards [are in there],’ and they said, 'No.' "

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She adds: “I said, ‘Well, I have my document box, it's in my laundry room door. It's just 20 steps back and the door's unlocked. I can't lift it with my back. If you could pick it up and take it with me.’ ‘No, you can't do that.’ I started begging, and three of them just picked me up and put me in the car.”

The firefighters first took her to a fire station in Carbon Canyon. While waiting in a garage at the station, Crumpler, who was donning wet clothes, was inhaling a lot of smoke. She then went to a lounge area where it also was filling up with smoke.

"I went to the doors and I saw these two guys with hoses,” she remembers. “I said, ‘What's going on?’ They said the firehouse is surrounded with fire. And they had men surround the whole thing. They were trying to put it out, but it was causing more smoke.”

Related: Celebrities Who Have Lost Homes or Had to Evacuate in the Los Angeles Fires, and What They've Said

"I couldn't breathe because there was smoke so bad," Crumpler says. "I probably should have been checked lung- wise, but I just haven't done it. I felt kind of burning when I was breathing yesterday, fighting the fire. But then I didn't notice it last night until this morning when I woke up and then I was a little hoarse." (According to Crumpler, she refused to go the hospital despite having difficulty breathing.)

During her temporary stay at the fire station where she rested, Crumpler was given food, a warm jacket and a blanket. She and another evacuee, a Korean woman, were later driven by authorities near Zuma Beach to what they thought was an evacuation facility but realized they had made a mistake, and Crumpler eventually ended up at the Westwood Recreation Center.

On how she feels after what she went through, Crumpler says. “I don't think I'm going to know until I know what's gone. Then it'll be a time of reflection of not memories lost, because you have your mind— but what helps you hold onto those memories, whether it's letters written somebody wrote, or pictures taken. And everything's kind of gone.”

Reflecting on her earlier description of what she experienced as a “holocaust” and “Armageddon,” she says that both were disasters. “I think God believes or knows that man has been turning his back on Him for a long time, and God has given man so many second chances,” Crumpler says. “I think we have a choice of facing something like Armageddon or not, depending upon whether we humble ourselves and seek forgiveness and reconcile. And man has a lot to figure out in the not-too-distant future.”

Related: Nurse Who Raced to Flee the L.A. Fires Thought Her Home Was Spared, Then She Saw What Was Left (Exclusive)

At the moment, Crumpler doesn’t know if her house, which she didn’t have insurance for, is still standing. Meanwhile, she says authorities won’t let her check her home until the damage assessments are completed, and that could take about five to 10 days.

“Everything was in my house that needed to come with me and I couldn't get it out,” she says.  “It takes me four times longer with this impairment, with the bone on one of my hip joints, and I can't use both arms and carry a box out.”

“I don't know if half of it's there or none of it's there,” she later adds.

Despite what happened, Crumpler says that she’s trying not to get into the doldrums. “I'm trying to think of what plan God has for me now, and how do I make use of that,” she says. “So I'm just kind of waiting for direction and trying to figure out what the status of the situation is and what I can possibly do.”

Crumpler adds, "It'll be a time of reflection of not memories lost — because you have your mind — until you realize it's all gone. Letters written or pictures taken, it helps you hold onto those memories. I don't think I'm going to know [how I feel] until I know what's gone."

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