get in my car, ma'am. get in my car. >> this is terrifying! tell me it's just -- >> it's not, it's the whole hill. >> tonight, the life-or-death effort to evacuate an inferno. >> okay, we've got to get out of here. >> inside one of california's deadliest wildfires. all caught on police officers' body cams. >> fire! >> the moments of bravery. >> i remember telling my wife, oh my god, i need to go. >> terror. >> god help me. >> we got to get out of here, man. >> for anybody to say they weren't scared? lying through your teeth. >> and humanity. >> hi, ma'am, i'm the escort service. >> this special edition of "nightline," "body cam: into the fire" will be right back.

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(music throughout) >> and humanity. this special edition of "nightline," "body cam: into the fire" continues. clayton sandell reporting. >> get in my car, ma'am. get in my car. >> my house is surrounded! tell me it's just this neighborhood. >> no, it's not, it's the whole hill.

>> don't pass, do not pass. >> god help me. ♪ >> it was a typical sunday. kid kids soccer. i do recall it was surprisingly windy in the morning. >> i don't think i've ever been in winds that were that strong. >> damn this wind. >> started work at 3:00. my partner says, this is going to be a bad night because of the wind. >> reporter: little do they know this unusual wind is carrying

something with it as it passes over the rolling hills of wine country. >> i got out of the downtown area up onto the freeway and saw the glow up on the hill. >> that? that's something on fire. >> reporter: a fast-moving raging wildfire is headed for their city. it's the dead of night. many of the residents are asleep, unguarded. >> we had no idea that this huge fire was coming towards the city of santa rosa. >> by the time it got to santa rosa, it seemed like embers the size of footballs were flying through the sky. the fire just seemed to be exploding everywhere you looked. >> reporter: as the goliath begins to show itself on santa rosa's outskirts the fire department scouts quickly realize they're no match in a fight. instead they turn their focus to saving lives. >> i made contact with the police department. i let them know we need to start the evacuation. >> i believe a text came out from the department saying, major fires, can you come in please? and i remember telling my wife,

oh my god, you know, i need to go. >> reporter: with body cameras rolling, officers from the santa rosa police department joined forces with first responders from all across northern california. in a treacherous race against time to evacuate the city of santa rosa as the fire engulfs it. >> i never thought in a million years i would ever encounter a fire like this. i'm not a firefighter. >> [ bleep ]. >> but when something is a magnitude like this it's everybody, it's all hands on deck. >> reporter: officer andy adams and his colleagues' early mission is the daunting and exhaustive task of running house house, furiously banging on doors, hoping to wake people up. as the sky around them begins to glow a menacing hue of orange, and smoke curls through the air. >> i would run up to a house, i'd shake the handle, i'd yell

police! fire's coming, you have to evacuate right now, you have to move on. >> come here! >> i don't know where she went. >> right here. >> okay, you guys need to get out right now, right now. >> i would have expected that the urgency from people to be a little bit more. i was getting frustrated. >> it's time to go right now. because i'm leaving. your family's in there? go get them! >> he's got his wife and their son. >> where? >> he's getting in the car right now. >> i don't think people quite realized the magnitude of what was happening in the moment. >> we were finding resident arizona sleep, we were finding people still in their homes. people unsure of what exactly to do. >> hello! so what's your plan? >> just staying here with the hose. >> you're going to fight it out?

>> i'm going to fight it out. >> you sure? >> yes. >> is there anybody else here with you? >> me and my wife. >> do you want me to get your wife out of here? >> no, she's all right. where are we going to go? >> we could get her where she needs to go. >> well -- >> but he's going to stay and fight, he doesn't want his wife to leave. >> sir, you're going to put a lot of people in danger. the fire is houses over, it's coming at us. >> you guys are being very straightforward and professional with him. what are you thinking in your mind? >> my thinking at the time was, i don't know what the fire's going to be like when he needs to be rescued. >> you've got to get out of here, like right now, like i'm leaving now because i've got to save myself. >> all right, go. >> reporter: later adams learned the man and his wife fled as flames approached their house. they would lose everything. as the police officers and firefighters continued their desperate mission, embers begin raining down from the sky. the fire is upon them. >> i remember driving by police

officers in police cars and seeing fire on both sides of the road. fire surrounding us. >> reporter: the fire does not know mercy. its only purpose is to churn forward and consume anything in its path. >> it was literally structure after structure after structure burning. thousands of structures all on fire within a matter of hours. >> reporter: officer orlando mecias is dispatched to a retirement community is they selled nesteled in the burning hills. he arrives to their faces. >> the power is out. i walked into the lobby of this facility. and there's just a sea of elderly folks. i kind of at that point said, all right, what are we supposed to do now? >> reporter: the clock ticking. the fire has surrounded the facility. >> for anybody to say they weren't scared? lying through your teeth. >> reporter: with only smaller police and fire vehicle on this the scene, there's no way mecias and the other first responders can get all these people safely evacuated. then a call comes that an

unlikely cavalry is on the way. santa rosa's bus drivers navigate their way through the fire and up the hill, volunteering their services, they risk their own lives to evacuate the masses of the stranded and vulnerable. >> the true heroes of that incident were those bus drivers. i took an oath, i said i'll face all these bad things. those guys didn't. and yet that was awesome. that was humanity at its best. i just started grabbing people and trying to help them onto the bus as fast as possible. but as calm as possible too. >> hi, ma'am. i'm your escort service. >> good for you. >> let me take your bag. >> i think there's always a calm amongst the storm, that if you're a voice of reason, people tend to resonate towards that. >> grab onto my shoulders like we're dancing, okay? >> i can't add fuel to the fire, so to speak. might as well try to keep nerves calm and try to just have fun

with folks. >> they could have got a thinner guy to help navigate this, but they got me. here we go. >> i like them big. >> you like them big, good. >> i want to treat everybody like i would my family. that lady who's looking at me in the wheelchair? could be my mom. how would i want someone to treat my mom? i'd want someone to dance with her. >> reporter: once the buses are loaded the residents are driven to an evacuation center. behind them a neighboring complex burns to the ground. >> the grove's gone. >> reporter: in a different part of town officer david peterson is on a lone mission to clear every house he can. >> before i could get to the end of the house, those houses would go up like matchsticks. flames 40 feet in the air. >> santa rosa, i can't go any further, smoke's too thick. >> reporter: multiple times he finds himself face-to-face with the devil, tempting fate at the gates of hell. >> there's at least four distinct times i felt, i've done

too much, i've gone too far. god help me. >> reporter: knowing lives are on the line, he keeps going. >> come on. get in my car, ma'am. get in my car. >> my house is surrounded! oh -- it's just so terrifying! >> reporter: peterson manages to get the woman and a group of other evacuees safely to a sheriff's station. >> can i put four evacuees in your lobby till their rides get there? all right, folks. all right, good night. >> reporter: not a moment to spare, he's back at it. >> so as the night went on you had -- i had that heavy feeling that nature had beat us handily. there was no way that we could beat the speed of the fire. >> reporter: compounding the chaos, most forms of communication are down. the one unlikely beacon of hope? radio. >> we realized fairly quickly that we were one of the only modes of communication still operating.

>> ksro interrupts this program for a breaking news update from the newsroom -- >> the north bay is on fire, 20,000 acres in santa rosa gone. this may well be the worst fire situation in sonoma county history. >> when we knew that there was no sign of it slowing down was when we were on the air with paul lowenthal. we heard him say, "oh my god, it jumped the freeway." and we knew that many more lives were in danger at that point. >> this is a [ bleep ] war zone, dude. >> reporter: when we come back, a neighborhood surrounded. >> five elderly subjects trapped inside of kioki court. >> reporter: officers race into the flames before it's too late. >> fire! we need to go! >> reporter: stay with us.

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this special edition of "nightline," "body cam: into the fire" continues. here again, clayton sandell. >> there's a huge fire coming, get your family and leave! >> reporter: it's the early morning hours of october 9th, 2017. >> sonoma county is on fire. >> reporter: the city of santa rosa is in the grips of a battle against mother nature. >> it's about five blocks away. >> are you [ bleep ] serious? >> yeah. >> honest? >> yeah, we've been up at fountain grove, it jumped the freeway. >> reporter: a team of first responders including these officers from the santa rosa police department are carrying out mandatory evacuations in the midst of a raging wildfire

incinerating everything in its path. >> you'd drive up to a house that's just completely on fire. what goes through your mind? you hope that they got out. >> reporter: when they find those who haven't, it becomes their job to get them out any way possible. >> it's life and death right now, okay? >> i got elderlies inside. >> this one? >> reporter: officers gonzales, campos, and adams of confronting with a terrifying situation when they come upon a senior care home where several elderly women, some in wheelchairs, are stranded. the fire is right there. >> we ran into the house. i took one lady in the wheelchair to my car, tried lifting her in. >> reporter: with no time and no other good options, he struggles to load this woman into the back of his car. >> okay. >> i cannot walk. >> okay, i'll help you. okay.

>> i can't -- >> i was putting her in a lot of pain, helping her get into the car. >> please help me. ai-yi-yi, my legs! >> i'm sorry, you've got to sit up. >> okay. >> reporter: then officer gonzales compos realizes the back of the house is catching fire. >> by the time i was wheeling the last lady out, their house was starting to become hit by flames. >> we've got to get out of here, man. >> let's get out of here. >> i got it, i got it. >> reporter: the officers make their escape and safely drive the women to an evacuation center. >> you're about two inches from the ground. there you go. >> reporter: they're welcomed by first responders, volunteers, and a growing mass of evacuees.

so many unsure of what lies ahead. but when a new day dawns, their harsh reality is thrown into focus. >> just seeing when the sun came up -- what santa rosa used to look like, then what it currently looked like. apocalypse kind of thing. >> reporter: close to 37,000 acres burned. more than 5,600 structures gone. whole neighborhoods reduce ed t ash. >> i felt the earth change. because maybe the earth had changed ll was profoundly, prof sad. >> nobody deserved to have their houses burn down. they had no anything. that's what you feel for. >> reporter: surrounded by utter devastation, santa rosa braces

itself for the impending death toll. >> i was devastated at the numbers of lives that i thought we had lost. >> that we had lost, you make it sound like it was almost taking it on as a personal failure. >> yeah, i took it on as a personal failure. i thought that, as hard as we worked as a team, that the elements beat us handily. >> reporter: 22 people lost their lives in that fire. but in a city of 175,000, the loss could have been far greater. >> i couldn't believe that it wasn't hundreds, if not close to a thousand. >> reporter: peterson says the fact the death toll wasn't much higher is a testament to the heroism of first responders. >> police officers from all across northern california coming to help the city of santa rosa, firemen from all over the state of californiaing in like trains. i was just so proud of the way the community came together. >> reporter: it's been 11 months

since the fire. memories of that long, dark night are still raw. >> i really don't think we're coping as well as we -- we like to talk about how well we're coping. >> why? >> it's just what i see on the street, you know. we talk a good game. or at least we publish a good game in the paper. but the things i see on the street, the people i talk to on the street, i think we're having a real difficult time. >> so which way should i go to go to coffey? >> get up on the freeway. go northbound. go right. >> go right? >> yeah. so this is an area we call coffey park. this is our city.s how we want e on the map. >> it's weird to say but i felt more human that night than i

think i ever have. because you didn't care what people looked like, you didn't care attitudes, didn't really matter. you all had the same goal, let's get out of here, let's keep each other safe. and that was -- it's weird to say it was a good feeling. it was kind of a forced gathering of humanity. which ultimately i think, you know -- things are going to be okay. >> reporter: and today there are signs and sounds of hope. the buzzing of a drill. the drumbeat of a hammer. noises once considered a nuisance are now welcome. >> that's a great sound, the sound of rebuild right there, how's it feel looking around at this today? >> i feel good. >> this is kind of a demonstration of the human spirit here, though, right? >> yeah, fight or flight. and this is fighting back. >> reporter: for "nightline,"

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we want to thank you for joining us tonight. we would also like to thank the city of santa rosa for granting us access in order to bring you this story. and the brave police and firefighters who shared their stories with us and put their lives on the line every day. we wish santa rosa's citizens well as they continue to rebuild. thank you again for watching and good night. - ( phone ringing ) - big button, on this state program.ed phoness visit right now or call during business hours. monitor their blood glucose every day. which means they have to stop. and stick their fingers. repeatedly.

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