Nancy Goldsen returned home Tuesday to hugs from neighbors and friends.

“We’re so happy for neighbors like Nancy that were able to come back to their homes because it’s devastating to try to comfort the people that are coming back to the ones that had burned,” said Tina Leeney, who stayed, despite mandatory evacuations because of the Woolsey fire.

She chose to defend her home and says pieces of palm trees rained down like fireballs.

“Every piece that came down was on fire and everywhere it landed, it caused a fire,” she explained. “I just didn’t want to watch my house burn on TV.”

Another neighbor shot video with her phone of flames overrunning the neighborhood Friday afternoon.

“There was no fire department here yet. It was just us three neighbors with garden hoses and that’s no match for a giant wall of fire moving at 60 mph,” Leeney said.

As for Goldsen, she first found out Saturday through social media that her home of about 20 years was saved from the flames, but coming back was still an emotional experience.

“I was terrified at what my street was going to look like because it’s a beautiful little community,” Goldsen said.

Seven other houses on her street were a total loss.

“My heart is bleeding for my neighbors three doors down,” she said.

Goldsen looked out at her backyard for the first time since evacuating almost a week ago.

“It was a beautiful, beautiful backyard,” she said.

Her enormous deck was scorched beyond recognition.

“It was two levels," she said. "One level and then you’d go up a couple steps. You can still, you can still see them and then there was a higher level.”

Goldsen says her yard often attracted wild critters that she would look after.

“I always fed my bird friends and my rabbit friends,” she said through tears. “I had a lot of wildlife friends that shared my yard.”

She’s incredibly thankful for the compassion of close friends, who gave her a place to stay in Woodland Hills.

“You can’t talk about those kinds of people enough because they save you,” she noted. “How do I get this lucky, I don’t know?”

But she does know fate, firefighters, and fellow neighbors are the reason she still has a place to call home.