Three California deputies and a U.S. Forest Service officer escaped a scary close call last month when they were briefly trapped by the raging Borel Fire.
The incident happened shortly after 4:30 p.m. July 26 as the Kern County sheriff's deputies and the Forest Service officer were evacuating people as wildfire flames tore through Havilah, the sheriff's office stated in a social media post that included body camera footage of their harrowing experience. As they were moving people out, they found that the flames had spread and blocked the road.
Quickly, the four officers tried to find alternate ways out, but they found that the fire had cut them off. They then called fire crews for aid as they drove to a clearing to get out of the way of the fast-spreading fire. The Forest Service officer had two Nomex flame resistant jackets, and he gave them to the deputies.
When aerial fire support couldn't reach the four because of heavy smoke, another call went out to the sheriff's office's Air Support Unit, which prepped a rescue flight.
"How are we going to get out of here, man?" one deputy is heard saying in the video footage.
Eventually, the Kern County Fire Department was able to reach a nearby road, but firefighters could reach the trapped deputies and officer, even though they could see them. The four officers drove through the fiery roadblocks to meet the nearby fire crews and make it to out of the flames after nearly 40 minutes.
"We're going home. Come on. We're going to get out of here. We gotta get out of here," one of the deputies is heard saying.
