Man Drives Up Burning Mountain to Rescue Stranded Woman and Her 4 Dogs from Palisades Fire: 'Just Doing the Right Thing'

Raw footage of the rescue shows the man driving through smoke, fire, and flying embers to get the pets and their owner to safety

As flames tore through the Pacific Palisades, a man took on a difficult rescue mission, driving uphill through smoke and flying embers to save a woman and her pets from danger.

Los Angeles-based producer Caleb Serban-Lawler was doing what he could to help out in the outskirts of the Palisades Fire — the largest blaze of the wildfires currently ripping across Southern California — the evening of Jan. 7 when he was confronted with a life-or-death situation.

"The first half of the day I was watering roofs with neighbors trying to keep fire out as much as possible," Serban-Lawler tells PEOPLE exclusively, adding that he began heading out of the area at sunset "when everything took a turn for the [worse]."

A woman "ran up" to his truck "asking for help," frantically explaining that her car would not start as she attempted to evacuate with her pets. "All I could do was imagine my own mother," the producer says.

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This fateful encounter, along with what happened next, was all captured in raw footage that Serban-Lawler shared on Instagram.

Related: L.A. Fires Live: 24 Dead and at Least 23 Missing, Officials Say, as High Wind Event Threatens Region

In the dramatic footage, the producer asks the woman if she is okay, and she responds that she cannot start her car, which is parked in her garage with all four of her dogs inside.

Serban-Lawler quickly agreed to help the woman, and the pair loaded into his truck and drove back up the mountain to her home. In the video, the pair drives through flying embers and smoke that "was so bad we couldn't see anything" to reach the dogs. Fires, meanwhile, burn on either side of the road throughout much of the footage.

Finally, the video shows the duo reaching the woman's car and loading her dogs into the truck. As they evacuated the pets, Serban-Lawler tells PEOPLE, her next door neighbor's home "was already in flames."

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The group then passed horrific scenes as they fled back down the mountain, including burning cars and trees.

Related: Neighbors Broke Gate to Save Grandma, 77, Who Lost ‘Dream’ Home in L.A. Fire While Recovering from Breast Cancer

@calebserbanlawler/TMX Scenes from Caleb Serban-Lawler's rescue of a woman and her four dogs

@calebserbanlawler/TMX

Scenes from Caleb Serban-Lawler's rescue of a woman and her four dogs

Eventually, three of the dogs were moved into another vehicle, per Serban-Lawler. "This reporter let me put 3 of the dogs in her car while we rearranged one," he wrote on Instagram, noting that they had to separate the pets because "he doesn't get along with the other 3 dogs."

The producer added that the pups and the woman ultimately relocated to a friend's house shortly after the rescue, writing, "All 4 dogs and her owner made it out safe, and nobody was harmed!"

And the owner couldn't believe that she made it out safely. "I don't know how you drove, you couldn't see anything," she told Serban-Lawler in the video. "I'm so grateful that I'm alive. I thought I was going to die. Thank you so much."

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"She kept telling me how I saved her life and that she would have [ended up] dead with her pets in her home if I didn't help her and that I was a hero. I don't think I'm a hero at all," Serban-Lawler tells PEOPLE. "Honestly, I was just doing the right thing, and I believe we need more people in the world willing to help like this."

The woman, who did not publicly share her name, also shared more of her side of the story on social media.

Related: Calif. Man Uses Horse Trailer to Save Over 90 Animals in the Path of L.A.'s 'Ghastly' Fires (Exclusive)

In an Instagram post, the dog owner wrote that she had been ready to evacuate "with everything loaded in my car" when it "went completely dead," leaving her in a near-hopeless situation.

"No one was around or allowed in," she wrote, adding that she got "no help from 911."

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So, the pet owner "ran down the hill in full panic and saw a truck," she continued. "He actually came up my street by mistake and was making a [U-turn] to go back down as my hands slammed his car to stop."

"If it wasn't for him, me and my 4 dogs would've died," she continued. "Me and my pups will be forever grateful to a true hero, Caleb @calebserbanlawler who just happened to be volunteering on that deadly horrific day💕🙏."

Read the original article on People