In the midst of the Camp Fire in Northern California, a paramedic team crawled through the doggie door of an abandoned house to set up a makeshift hospital in a garage after their ambulance melted, ultimately saving 13 people, according to The Washington Post.
Here are four things to know:
1. The paramedic team fled Paradise, Calif.-based Feather River Hospital in two ambulances to escape the fire. They were about a mile away from the nearest hospital when the lead ambulance broke down from the fire's smoke and started to melt.
2. Only one home had not caught fire, so a paramedic broke into the abandoned house from the doggie door to open the garage from the inside while the other paramedics carried three patients into the garage. Ultimately, 13 people took refuge from the approaching fire.
3. The group consisted of three patients, one of whom had just had a cesarean section, the medical team including nurses and a pediatrician, and refugees. They stayed in the house for two hours, using garden hoses to hold back the flames and clearing the surrounding area of pine needles and other kindling. After the fire passed, a sheriff vehicle passed through the area and took them to a different hospital miles away.
"It was unfathomable how fast the fire was moving; there was no way out," Tamara Ferguson, RN, nurse at Feather River Hospital, told The Washington Post. "The safest thing to do was wait right there."
4. About 1,200 people are missing and there have been more than 70 confirmed deaths attributed to the Camp Fire.
To read about the owners of the abandoned house and how the medical staff thanked them, click here.
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