‘Very humbling’: Deputy describes driving through fire to save couple stuck in Mosquito Fire
By Melanie Wingo
Click here for updates on this story
El Dorado County, California (KCRA) — In an update on a story first reported on KCRA 3 over the weekend, we have learned the name of an El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputy credited with rescuing an older couple from their neighborhood that burned in the Mosquito Fire.
Thursday of last week got off to a slow start for El Dorado County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeramy Buckman.
There were rumblings, however, that the Mosquito Fire, which started just two days earlier, might cross the American River from Placer County into El Dorado County.
By early afternoon, the fire was advancing fast.
“It had jumped,” said Buckman. “It was actively working up our side of the canyon towards Volcanoville.”
Responsible for informing people about evacuation orders, Buckman got a call about an older couple that was stranded at their home in Volcanoville with their two dogs.
Their car was disabled. They couldn’t get out. So Buckman set out to find them – making his way down the narrow, windy Volcanoville Road, seeing small spot fires and smoke along the way before finally arriving at the couple’s property.
Getting the couple to safety proved to be a more lengthy ordeal than Buckman bargained for.
As Buckman worked to get the couple loaded up in his truck, a wild pig living in the area that had tangled with their dogs earlier in the week, went after the dogs again – attacking them as they tried to evacuate.
Eventually, the deputy helped corral the dogs and hoisted them up into his truck. The ordeal consumed precious minutes of escape time.
“By the time we made our way back out, the nature of the fire going back out Volcanoville road had changed dramatically,” he said. “Ahead of us was just smoke over the roadway. You could see fire on both sides.”
The daring escape back out Volcanoville Road and the conditions they faced – including moments Buckman needed to stop to try to catch his bearings – was all caught on video.
“To the right of us where my tire was, was an active fire and nowhere to go at that point,” he said. “I couldn’t see the road behind me. I couldn’t see in front of me. This poor couple in the car [was] very distraught.”
But they couldn’t turn back.
“I was like, ‘Well, OK. Here we are,'” Buckman said. “Let’s soldier on ’cause that way is the only way out.”
In the final moments of the video, the smoke clears and the group makes a break for it.
“I could see most of the road up ahead, but I could see there was significant fire on both sides,” he explained. “So we just jammed out.”
This story, Buckman told KCRA 3, is filled with irony as thick as the wildfire smoke obscuring their view. Rescuing a couple from fire is not where he imagined his law enforcement career would take him.
“Here I am, staring at this fire going, ‘I became a cop to not die in a fire.'” Buckman said. “I didn’t want this to be the way this all ends.”
In the days since the rescue, word of his heroic effort traveled like, well, wildfire.
“When our department posted the video, I started reading a lot of the comments that were being made,” said Buckman. “That’s when I started thinking about it outside of… just doing our job.”
He was happy to help a couple in need, and grateful his community appreciated his actions.
“It’s very humbling to see the reaction from the community,” Buckman said.
Buckman’s lifesaving work didn’t end there. That same day on his way home from work, he discovered a motorcyclist that had been thrown from his bike into a tree on a rural, El Dorado County Road.
The deputy pulled over, called for backup, and began giving medical aid until paramedics got there.
That motorcyclist was taken to the hospital and survived the crash.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
