'Gotta get out of here': California deputy races through flames in Sonoma County wildfire

Newly released body-camera video shows officers in California racing through flames in the middle of the night to help residents flee one of the state's devastating wildfires.

“Sheriff’s office!” one shouts, pounding on a home's doors as flames lick through the brush just beyond. “You gotta go!”

In one sequence, two deputies lift a woman into the back of a patrol vehicle before rushing away.

The video, captured on the body camera of a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy, shows the dramatic early moments of the Tubbs Fire, which began Oct. 8 and raced through rural neighborhoods overnight, catching many people off-guard.

The department posted the video to its YouTube channel Friday night, describing it as “one deputy’s rescue efforts late Sunday night and early Monday morning” during the Tubbs Fire.

(The time stamp on the video is in Universal Time, seven hours ahead of local time, meaning the events happened right around midnight on the evening the fire began.)

The Tubbs Fire and others in the area north of San Francisco have killed 10 people, and 32 people so far have died in fires across the state. The Tubbs Fire destroyed entire neighborhoods in Sonoma County. It remained only 25 percent contained as of Friday night, with almost 35,000 acres burned, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, better known as Cal Fire. 

In one particularly gripping video sequence, a deputy races down a winding road as oak trees explode in flames, and sparks rain down around him.

“Don’t hit me,” he mutters, as an ember falls onto his vehicle. “Gotta get out of here,” he says, seemingly to himself. “We’re in a bad spot.”

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