SAN DIEGO -- One month after the Cedar Fire, burned out homes in Scripps Ranch are disappearing. The rubble is being hauled away and fire Capt. Dan Saner paid his first visit since the day the fire devastated Scripps Ranch.

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"Smoke was down to our ankles. We could hardly see. The fire was going uphill, flying across trees. It was one of most amazing things I've seen in my life," Saner said.

Saner helped battled the incredible force of nature with only three other crewmen.

"When you turned and looked into the fire coming over hill, we were hit with golf ball-sized embers. The wind was roaring. I had never seen wind like that," he said.

Saner said the winds were blowing 60 miles per hour at times and thinks a 'firestorm' was the perfect description.

"The only thing we could do was stand in the way of part of it," he said.

Even though hundreds of homes were burned, thousands were saved.

"I'm just happy to see homes standing. It's great to see some of our work that really paid off," Saner said.

He said it took everything they had that day.

"We were one engine company with a strike team going one house to next to see what we could do. We saved people's vehicles by pulling cars of garages," Saner said.

He also said he has been touched many times over the past month as grateful fire victims express their thanks.