Firefighter finds treasure amid fire's destruction

After a weekend of loss, something was found. In the midst of rubble, a dusty jewel.

Here's how it happened Friday morning in a burned-down house on South Laurel Tree Drive in Anaheim Hills:

Four off-duty Anaheim firefighters showed up about 8:30 on a mercy mission. Last Saturday afternoon, Jeff and Dana Philblad's house and everything in it just melted away. What had been a two-story house of 2,500 square feet now was little more than a mass of dirt, tile, glass, nails and wiring. The couple and 11-year-old Wesley got out safely, along with the family cat and dog.

Early in the week, Dana Philblad, six months pregnant, had heard through the local grapevine that some firefighters were willing to scour the wreckage of homes for small items that might have survived.

She hadn't been able to wear her wedding ring because her fingers had swollen during her pregnancy. She'd kept it in a basket in the upstairs bathroom. Was there any chance, she wondered.

Not much, was the answer. The ring had probably melted with everything else. Not to mention that the house looked like a demolition site.

But on Friday, for the third time this week, a group of firefighters armed with shovels, 5-gallon buckets and screens acting as sieves volunteered to sift through the rubble some more.

Read the rest of the story here.

-- Dana Parsons