get i my car, ma'am. gein my car. >> this is terrifying! tell me it's just -- >> it's not, is the whole hill. >> tonight, theife-or-death effort to evacuate an inferno. >> okay, we've got to get out of here. >> inside one of california's deadliest wildfire all caught on police offers' body cams. >> fire! >> the moments ofbravery. >> i remember telling my wife, oh my god, i need to go. >> terror. >> god help me. >> we got tget out of here, man. >> for anybody to s they weren't scared? lying through your teeth. >> and humanity. >> hi, ma'am, i'm the escort service. >> thi special edition of

this special edition of "nightline," "by cam: into the fire" continues. clayton sandell porting. >> get iny 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. windy in the morng.surprisingly >> i don't think i'v ever been in winds that were that strong. >>amn 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 itass over the rolling hills of wine country. >> i got out of e 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 headefor their city. it's the dead of night. many of the residents are

asleep, unguarded. >> we had no idea that ts 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 oukirts the fire department scouts quickly realize they're no match in a fight. instead they turn their focus to >> 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 y 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 throu the air. >> i would run up to a house, i'd shake the handle, i'd yel police! fire 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 eected that the urgency from people to be a littleit more. i was getting frustrated. >> it's tim to go right now. because i'm leaving. ur family's ithere? go get them! >> he's got his wife and their son. >> where? >> he's getting in the car right >> i don't think people quite realized the magnitude of what was happening in the moment. >> we were fding 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 wherehe >> well --o. >> 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 a 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 scued. >> you've got tget out of here, like right now, like i'm leing now because i've goto save myself. >> all right, go. the man and his wife fled as ned flames approached their house. they would lose everything. as the pice officers and firefighters continued their desperatemission, 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 roadus. >> reporter:he fire does not know mercy. its only purpose is to churn forward and consume anything in s path. >> it was literally structure after structure after structure rning. thousands of structus all on

fire within a matter of hours. >> reporter: officer orlando mecias is dispatched t a retirement community is they selled nesteled in the burning hill he arrives to their faces. >> the power is out. i walked into the lobby of ts facility. and there's jusa sea of elderly folks. i kind o at that point said, all right, what are we supposed to do now? reporter: the clock ticking. the fire has surrounded the facity. >> for anybody to say they weren't scared? lying through your teeth. >> reporter: with only smaller police and fire vehicle on this th scene, there's no way mecias and the other first responders can get all these people safely evacuate unlikely cavalry is on theway. santa rosa's bus drivers navigate their way through the fire and up the hill, volunteering their services, they ris their own lives to evacuate the masses of the stranded and vulnerab. >>he true hoes 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 y 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 psible 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 t speak. might as well try to kee nerves calm and try to just have fun with folks. >> ty cld haveot a thinner guy to help navigate this, t they got me. here we go. >> i like them big. >> you like them big, od. >> 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. >> reporr: once the buses are loadedhe resents are driven to an evacuationcenter. behind them a neighboring complex burns to theground. >> the grove's gone. >> reporr: in a diffent part of town officer david petersn is on a lone mission to clear every house he can. >> before i could get to the end of the house, those houses would flames 40 feet in the air. >> santa rosa, i can't go any further, smoke's too thick. >> reporter: multie times he fis 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!ohrri!

eporn m t theom saf to a sheriff's station. >> can i put four evacuees in your lobby till their rides get ere? all right, folks. all right, good night. >> reporter: not a momt 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. ere was no way that we could beat the speed of t 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 i sonoma county history. >> when w knew tha there was

no sign of it slowing downas when we were on the air wh paul lowenthal. we heard him say, "oh my god, it jumped the frway." and we knew that many more lives were in danger at that point. >> this is a [ bleep ] war zone dude. >> reporter: when w 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!

this special edition of "nightline," "body cam: into the fire" ntinues. here again, clayton sandell.

>> the's a huge fire coming get your family and leave! >> reporter: it's the early morning hours o october 9th, 2017. >> sonoma county is on fire. >>eporter: 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 carryg 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 hopehat they got out. >> reporr: when they find those who haven't, it bes 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 terrifyin situation when they come upon a senior care home where several elderly women, some in wheelchairs, are stranded. the fire is right ther >> 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. 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 washeeling the last lady out, their house was starting to become hit by flames. >> we've got to get out of re, man. >> let's get out of here. >> i got it, i g 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. first responders, volunteers, by 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 lo like, the what it 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 literally. it was profoundly, profoundly sad. >> nobody deserved to have their houses burn down. they had no anything. that's what you feel for. >> reporter: surrounded bytter devastation, santa rosa braces itself for the impending death toll. >> i was devastated at the mbers 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 aents beat us handily >> repter: 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 n close to a thousand >> reporter: petson 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 californi coming in i was just so proud othe way e 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 >> 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 t street, the people i talk to on the street,

>> s 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. this is not how we want it to be on the map. >> it's weird t say but i felt more human that night than i think i ever have. beuse you didn't care what people looked like, you didn't care attitus, didn't really matter. you all had the same goal, let's get out of here, l's keep each othe safe. and that was -- it's weird to itin o fce good feeling. 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, yeah. >> how's it feel looking around at this today? >> i feel good. >> this is kindf a denstration of the human spit here, though, right? >> yeah, fight or flight. and this is fighting back. >> reporter: for "nightl

we want to thank you for joining us tonight. we would also like to thank the city of santa rosa for granting us access iorder to bring you this story. and the brave police and firefighters who shared their

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today the top democrat on the judicial committee sent president trump urging an fbi investigation before a hearing over the sexual assault

investigation. that hearing will be open and