Wow, I've a bunch of near death experiences.
First one- Almost drowned in the Niagara River, my buddy and I decided to swim across from the Canadian side to the American side starting from the Peace Bridge and wanted to make it back before the railroad bridge on the Canadian side. We touched the American side and started back, we had to swim like crazy if were going to make it to the railroad bridge. A boat stopped and asked if we needed a lift. I should have taken the ride. So we are swimming our asses off and were almost there but I was just plain ran out of gas and had no energy to swim anymore. I started to sink and I had no energy to stop from sinking. Incredibly I was at complete peace with the fact that I was going drown and this it for me. Then I felt something pulling me by the hair, my buddy dove down and was pulling me to the surface. He got me up and I got a few breaths of air and he urged me to start swimming again which I did and made it to the pier by the railroad bridge. I would have drowned if he didn't pull me up. Then we had a five mile walk home. Good times.
Second time - The wild fires in San Diego County 2007. I used to have a ranch in the San Pasqual Valley. Around 1:30Am a wall of fire 100 feet high was racing towards us driven by high winds created by the fire itself. We grab the dog and jump in the truck and drive straight towards the fire to get behind it. The fire was a few feet from the truck as we drove past it. we stop at the only store in the area that has a parking lot for saftey. parking lots don't burn. The fire is raging around us, houses are burning, propane tanks are exploding , cars exploding from the gas in their tanks. It is completely surreal. Their are other people there for saftey as well. A Cal Fire crew comes by and moves us to a safer location farther down the road by the Wild Animal Park where there are hundreds of fire fighters battling the blaze to protect the animals. Again very surreal. Later we moved to a mall to try and sleep in the parking lot, the fire again overtakes that area, so I figured if the fire is at the mall it is not at my ranch, it has burned the the area already. Wrong! As we are driving back to the ranch, I had to dodge a police barricade, then on the only road to my ranch is block by a wall of fire blowing across the road. I cant see the other side, there could be downed trees or burned cars for all I know, we stomp on the gas and race thru the wall of fire. Stupid I know but I wanted to see what happened to my ranch. Well all I can say is utter devastation, my ranch looked like Hiroshima, everything was burned down and charred black. Hundred's of trees were knocked down from the wind or burned. Everything was completely destroyed.