They’re godsends.
Last Wednesday, a day after the Eaton Fire broke out northeast of Los Angeles, Rabbi Zushi Rivkin and his brother-in-law and fellow rabbi, Laibel Hanoka, took matters into their own hands to save people’s homes and priceless possessions.
“The miraculous part to me is we came at the right moment,” Rivkin, 38 and the director of Chabad of Pasadena, told The Post.
The two holy men drove through Altadena, just north of Pasadena, looking for ways to help.
“We said, ‘Let’s go check on people’s homes. I just pretended like I was delivering matzah. I make my routes and go door-to-door for Passover,” Rivkin said of braving the elements for the dangerous miztvah.
“I was holding my breath wondering, are the homes going to be standing? Every other home was in flames or just embers.”
They soon came upon the Mount Curve Avenue residence of Marilyn Kirschen, a 74-year-old retired nurse and widower.
Krischen, who has been a member of Chabad Pasadena for three years, had evacuated, and Rivkin said her “street was completely ravished.”
Krischen’s garage had burnt to the ground, but her home was still standing, so the two men took action.
“My heart got stuck in my throat,” Rivkin recalled. “We said, ‘Oh my god, we can still save her house.”
Hanoka grabbed a hose but it wasn’t working, so they began throwing dirt from the large garden on to the flames.
“The fire started going out,” said Rivkin. “Thank god the house was still standing.”
When Rivkin called Krischen — who was staying with Rabbi Yisroel of Chabad Pasadena and his wife Chanie Pinson — she was nearly brought to tears with the news.
“It was a blessing,” Kirschen told The Post of the home surrounded by oak trees she’s lived in for 40 years. “They saved my house.”
Rivkin — who has also been providing evacuees with kosher meals, clothing and help finding housing — was happy to be of service.
“We saved her stuff – everything inside her house — the material possessions and sentimental stuff,” he said. “The house was saved and that was pretty amazing.”
He also rushed in to save the Altadena home of another community member, 72-year-old Allen Wasserman.
Rivkin burst a water pipe outside the Garfield Street house to help stop the flames from from spreading from the guest quarters to Wasserman’s main home before firefighters arrived.
“Eventually, a fire truck pulled up to the street. We called out to them and said, ‘Can you come here – we can still save this house!’ In seconds he puts out this smaller fire,” Rivkin said.
Wasserman’s home was spared, but Rivkin still made sure a prized possession was safe.
Before leaving, he spotted a blue-and-white plastic chair that belonged to Wasserman’s father and that the man had talked about to him about on various visits.
“Allen has told me at least 30 times before the fires that’s his dad’s chair,” said Rivkin, who carried the heirloom to his car for safekeeping amidst the chaos. “It’s 100 years old. It’s his dads – it means a lot to him.”
