Crews work Christmas Eve to clean up dirt, debris from Azusa home

AZUSA, Calif. (KABC) -- Instead of being home with their families on Christmas Eve, crews with the Ramirez Company worked overtime, scooping out mounds of dirt and debris that nearly overwhelmed an Azusa home during the last big storm.

"We are taking care of all the dirt that fell, just getting rid of it because he's in danger. If another rain comes, he could lose his house," said owner Nick Ramirez, whose employees are usually off for the holiday.

The mudslide almost overran a barrier protecting Ed Heinlein's home from being damaged or destroyed. In March, the home was briefly red tagged after a storm unleashed a mudslide damaging the home.

"This is the best Christmas we ever had because these guys are showing up the day before Christmas to save our house. We were told one more storm, it would have blown all that out and destroyed the house," Heinlein said.

Ramirez says he did work for Heinlein when his home was damaged by a mudslide in March. He says he is not sure when he is going to get paid for this job, and that the payment depends on Heinlein and his insurance company.

"Our contract is we are not going to get paid when we're done. We're waiting until he deals with the legalities of it. It could be a year, could be a month, could be two years, I don't know," Ramirez said.