The wildfires in and around San Diego sent plenty of people running for safety, but one teenager rushed into danger to save a stranger's home.

As CBS affiliate KFMB reports, 17-year-old Chris Simmons was among many people who had stopped in San Marcos to snap photos of the Cocos Fire. But when Simmons heard community member say their personal belongings were engulfed in flames, the teenager's Boy Scouts experience kicked in.

"I can't just stand around and watch them suffer," Simmons told the station.

30 Photos California wildfires Simmons walked past a police barricade and helped an injured man to safety. He then cut his forearm breaking glass to get a fire extinguisher so he could help put out a burning house fence.

"I was stepping on their white carpet to get to the kitchen - and I realized, these people are gonna think someone tried to burglarize their house," Simmons said.

The teenager left a note asking the person to pay it forward.

"We went inside and that's when we saw the note stuck on a frame on my wall from Chris," homeowner, Todd Smith said.

Smith says his backyard is burned but his home is intact, so he was amused that the bottom of the blood-stained note said: "Sorry about the carpet."

Play Video Devastating wildfires: 47 homes destroyed, more than $20M in losses The note also says "return the favor to others."

"I think you need to recognize someone when they do something special like that, and that kid definitely did something special," Smith said.

Simmons said he plans to join the Navy after he graduates Vista High School and he wants to be a doctor.

When you see someone who has struggled and surpassed life's obstacles instead of letting the hardships of life overtake them, it kind of makes you want to share it with the world to inspire others to do the same.  This is the story of one woman and how her struggles led to her to a "pay it forward" type of life...and all the people that wanted to show her that she's truly an inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p2zUf06iy1A

Kindness of strangers...unpredictable.  It comes from everywhere and nowhere in particular.

To see it gives me hope...to receive it gives me strength..to give it makes me whole.

~ SSG follower
pay it forward

My husband and I were driving last weekend to go put flowers on my grandfather's gravesite,  It's in the older part of Rosemead with a mixed population of Asians, Hispanics and a low percentage of Caucasian and African American.  I haven't had a real thought growing up regarding race, but as I got older, race plays a factor in people's lives whether we think about it or not.  This day, it didn't.

We normally judge kids or teenagers that have turned around baseball caps, pants hanging low, gold chains around their necks with a tag of thug, maybe gangster, maybe white trash, druggie...we've watched enough movies to distinctly tell them apart and for some it is a realistic description, but not this day.

We finished putting the flowers on the grave and started off for home.  Not a lot of people driving that morning so there were two cars, ours and theirs.  The car was a lowered beat up Honda with two boys inside...I'll call them boys because they weren't in their 20's and being in my 40's, I feel like anyone younger than 20 still a kid.  

I looked to one side of the street and a  little old Asian grandma-type just started crossing and our light was green so we could turn if we wanted to.  She was going at a snails pace so you can only imagine how slow that was.  She looked to be about in her 80's, full gray head of hair, a little hunch in her back from years of living, covering her eyes from the hot sun and a gimp in her step needing the aid of the cane to help her walk.  That's when I saw the other corner with the two boys blasting their music in their beat up Honda.  Two Caucasian kids that stood out like a sore thumb in a city filled with little old Asian ladies, stopped their car at the corner and the kid in the passenger seat got out, pulled up his lowriding pants and put his hat forward.  He ran to where the little old lady was crossing the street, offered his arm for her to lean on and he slowly walked with her to the other side.


I haven't been surprised by a human deed like that in my lifetime.  I've read about it, I've watched it in the movies but to actually witness it brought a tear to my eyes and made me clap out loud.


I do think we are judged, not by God but by people by the deeds that we do in this life...now I see there is hope by witnessing a 3 second act of kindness as I watched in my rearview mirror with a smile on my face.

In my twenties I thought my life was perfect.  Then it started going downhill when I got into drugs and gambling.  I didn't see it happening because at the moment I was having fun, living fast and living free. I had no respect for family, money or life.  I lived on the streets by choice, parents kicked me out because of my lifestyle and since I wasn't willing to change, I chose to stay out on the streets. Tough love they called it...I understand it now.

I never thought about what I was going to do, how was I going to feed myself or where was I going to sleep each night...it just sort of came to me everyday.  Now I realize that people, total strangers, were watching over me.  They made sure if they saw me that I ate something. If I was tired they offered their home if I wanted to rest or clean myself up.  If I didn't want to be found they hid me. If I wanted to gamble they would let me play, and if I wanted to do drugs it was free.  Then one day I woke up and asked myself what I was doing and was this how my life was supposed to be...my mind answered "you're lost and yes, this was how you're life is supposed to be...until you want it to be different".

That first phone call back to my parents when I was about to turn 33yrs old was the day my life changed. That was 9 years ago.  I'm 42 now and my world is different.  I have a husband, 3 dogs, a house with a mortgage, a job I love, a boat that we use to get away from reality and money saved up for a rainy day.  I'm happy...truly at peace with myself kind of happy.

I can't remember the names of the people that helped me but their faces and their actions will stay with me for the rest of my life...I owe them not only my very existence, but more importantly, I owe them to keep the promise I made them for keeping me alive and safe to lead the life I was supposed to lead and help others that were lost just like me. Moral of this story is that it's never too late to change but that there are things, bad things some have to go through to make you wake up and ask yourself, "what are you doing, and is this really how you want it to be...answer is up to you but if its not, it is never too late to change.

I never got to say thank you so I don't expect one in return.  Whether its buying someone a meal, finding a stray dog their home, offering the elderly your seat, letting a car go in front of you when no one else will, returning a lost ring found in a bathroom, paying for someone else's haircut because someone paid for yours, paying it forward when the opportunity arises...I'm keeping my promise and good things are always happening.  This is the life I'm supposed to be living.

Sincerely,
Secret Society of Guardians...join me