Rather than getting himself to safety he checked for anyone still in the burning building, tagging doors of rooms which were clear to aid in firefighters’ efforts. Chaos broke out around Allyn as the entire town attempted to evacuate from a fire which was spreading at a rate of one acre (which is about the size of an American football field) every second.

Finally, Allyn jumped into the Pandra, his Toyota Tundra — SR5 spec, but we’ll get to the details later — and rounded up a few stragglers in the parking lot, yelling at them to jump in. From here, he fought traffic on Pentz Road and headed south making a right-hand turn onto Pearson to head into the gully towards the highway.

Small problem – the gully was already in flames, full of abandoned and burning cars, and homes engulfed in flames on either side. Allyn tried to keep everyone’s spirits up in the truck, joking “take pics, this is the last time I’ll be doing this tour!” This is where other versions of the story I’ve read seem to diverge, but Allyn insists he travelled just over a mile before sending his passengers safely off into a firetruck (and not all the way into Chico).

Eventually, neither the firetruck nor Allyn could proceed any further down the road; too many abandoned vehicles were blocking the path. At this point, the firefighters next to him tossed blankets over their truck and stopped trying to even fight the fire around them; they had to focus on surviving.

Not wanting to leave his truck and block anyone coming behind him (which is exactly why Allyn was trapped in the first place), he concentrated on trying to pilot the Pandra to a safe point. Only, there wasn’t one; the Tundra was his only hope. With no space to maneuver and fire whipping by on either side, Allyn recognized that he “really might not make it out of this alive.”