An extraordinary May 20 report by the Mercury News examines the October 2017 Wine Country fires from the perspective of body-camera videos captured by Santa Rosa police officers as they sought to warn and rescue elders threatened by the raging fires. Among other heroic actions, the videos show officers rescuing scores of residents of Oakmont of Varenna, a luxury retirement community, with no staff or management in sight to assist in any way. Responding officers and firefighters had to break down resident doors, calm terrified residents, carry some residents down multiple flights of stairs, summon emergency transportation and evacuate residents through intense heat and smoke from nearby fires.
Read the article and view the videos
Read the investigation report of an officer who rescued Varenna residents