(CNN) Tracy Grant was in a parking lot handing out hamburgers to evacuees from the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California when she encountered Lee Brundige.

The 93-year-old World War II veteran had just fled his house in Paradise by driving his own car as the wildfire was approaching.

"He called me the burger girl," Grant says. "It took us about 24 hours to convince him to follow me home."

This was last Thursday in Oroville, about 11 miles south of the fire. Brundige told her he could sleep in his car that first night, and that's exactly what he did, despite Grant's protestations.

"I didn't like leaving him there, but he's very independent. So I made sure he had blankets and a pillow," Grant says. "I stayed with him until about midnight."

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