California wildfire: Body-camera video shows officer helping people escape

Dramatic body camera footage published on October 14 shows a deputy from the Sonoma Sheriff’s office assisting civilians as wildfires roar across Northern California.

The death toll from the Tubbs Fire, which is spreading through Napa and Sonoma counties, rose to 19 as of Friday, SF Gate reported. In total, the larger series of wildfires has taken at least 35 lives.

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Hundreds of people are still missing and over 90,000 residents have been evacuated.

The video, filmed on October 9, shows the deputy in the Mark West area north of Santa Rosa rescuing people and helping with evacuations.

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“Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” an unidentified Sonoma County deputy can be heard yelling in the body-camera video released by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. The footage was recorded as he urged hesitant drivers to get out of the town that was quickly being overtaken by the blaze.

He is also shown lifting a disabled woman out of her wheelchair and into an SUV to rush her out of town. “Watch her leg,” he can be heard yelling as he lifts the woman into the vehicle. The video ends with the deputy driving through a wall of flames looking for more people to help.

A post on the Sonoma Sheriff’s Facebook page explains that the footage is “representative of all the deputies who helped evacuate people that night… This footage is crucial in helping our community understand how dangerous these fires are right now.”

The Tubbs fire comprises the Napa and Sonoma counties, and is just one of over 17 major wildfires across Northern California. Some 45 search-and-rescue teams and 18 detectives were deployed to search devastated neighborhoods for victims.

The year’s wildfire season is one of the worst in history in the United States, with nearly 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares) burned, just behind 2012, the National Interagency Fire Center reported.

With files from Reuters and the Associated Press.