Very Scary Paradise, California Bodycam Video Emerges. How Did They Survive?

Image from a terrifying body cam video of people
trying to escape the Paradise, California wildfire earlier this month. 

I was terrified just watching the video at the bottom of this post and you will be, too.

The video is body cam footage from Butte County Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Parmlet as he searched for four nurses he needed to help evacuate from Feather River Hospital as this month's deadly wildfire overtook Paradise, California.

The wildfire is now the deadliest in the United States in decades, claiming at least 88 lives.

There's still trouble going on around Paradise. Heavy rains yesterday led to flash floods, debris flows and new evacuations.

In the video, Parmlet thought he was going to be one of those victims, so he turned on the body cam to record what he believed might be his last moments. 

The fire killed his patrol car and he was forced to go on foot. He and other evacuees can barely be seen in the thick smoke. Fire burned everywhere and great gusts of embers engulfed people. With the choking smoke and heat, I don't know how any of the people in the video lived.

Happy spoiler alert: They did survive. Eventually a tractor emerged from the smoke. Parmlet got the attention of the driver with his flashlight and they used the tractor to get out of what was certainly hell on Earth.

Here's the video: