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Jason Deach and Mike Griswold — two handymen at the Zorthian Ranch, an artists colony in Altadena — had escaped the flames hours earlier, racing into the smoke, wind howling, buildings burning, trees exploding around them.

“We started hearing about the fire around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday,” Griswold said.

Describing themselves as carpenters, mechanics and sheep-shearers, Deach and Griswold were gathered at a Ralphs parking lot with others displaced by the destruction.

Deach and Griswold felt the wind.

Johns Hopkins graduate student and study first author Jacqueline Griswold tested the idea but found no effect on axon pearling.