'I just cried': 86-year-old Korean War veteran loses home in LA fires

Left with just the clothes on his back, 86-year-old Army veteran Roosevelt Pullem said the Eaton Fire demolished his Los Angeles County home but couldn't destroy the memories he and his late wife shared in the decades they lived in the residence.

"I just cried. Kind of like, I couldn't help it," Pullem told ABC Los Angeles station KABC Tuesday night of his initial reaction to seeing his home in Altadena reduced to charred ruins. "I kept thinking to myself, 'You have the memories, you have the memories.'"

Pullem, a retired nurse who served in the Korean War, said he was inside his house on Jan. 7 when the Eaton Fire swept into his neighborhood, leveling home after home. When he opened his front door to check how close the rapidly spreading fire had gotten to his property, he said he saw flames "twirling towards me."