A heroic sheriff's deputy rescued a Rottweiler and her four puppies after they were abandoned while residents fled a raging wildfire in a remote area of Northern California.
A heartwarming video posted on social media on Sunday shows the four puppies trotting ahead of their clearly exhausted mother on a dirt road as they trailed deputy Trevor Skaggs to a waiting helicopter following the three-day ordeal.
The dogs' owner had to leave the pets behind after the truck carrying them broke down during the evacuation Wednesday evening, the Butte County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The unidentified owner told authorities where the truck was parked in a remote area near Campbellville but a rescue couldn't be attempted at the time due to the blaze, the sheriff's office said.
On Saturday, Skaggs, a member of the sheriff's Search and Rescue team, was flown by helicopter and dropped off nearby.
He then ran 1 1/2 miles to the truck and "found the puppies and mother alive, but tired and very thirsty," according to the sheriff's office.
"Unfortunately, the puppies' father was found to have not survived," the statement said.
Skaggs gave the mother and her puppies water and pieces of a protein bar, then coaxed them into following him back to the chopper.
"The puppies and their mother were then flown to the Chico Airport and are now being cared for by members of the North Valley Animal Disaster Group," the sheriff's office said. "It's been a horrific few days for our community and we are grateful to be able to share this amazing story.
The blaze, dubbed the Park Fire, erupted Wednesday afternoon and covered more than 368,000 acres with just 12% contained as of Monday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
It's the state's largest wildfire of the 2024 season and has been blamed on Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, who allegedly pushed a burning car into a gully at Upper Bidwell Park in Chico.
Stout, who has previous convictions for child sex crimes and robbery, was arrested early Thursday and was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday.
