the evacuation that morning, probably around 12:30, 1:00 in the afternoon. we went back to the hospital. and the video that you re seeing about the trees and the emptiness and just the fireplaces that were standing, that s where my house used to be and my neighbor s homes used to be. as i drove away, the first time the house was standing and not on fire. within a short period of time going back toward the hospital it was like it never existed except for the fireplace. that s what we can see, the chute, the chimney, i guess. it s impossible to see your house. have you reconnected with dave, the driver? do you know who he is? do you know how to find him? i do a little bit. so he actually came and checked on me once we were safely admitted to the hospital.
we left early that morning after the evacuation. they kind of rush immediate toward the front of the evacuation line. we were trying to get to an ambulance. by the time we got there, they were putting patients into private vehicles of employees. so we left there and we were not able to arrive until between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. so your trip for 20 miles took nine hours? o yes. we kept getting trapped by the fire and having to backtrack and wait and go forward and wait. several times. people were just abandoning their vehicles and running. oh, my gosh, rachelle, that sounds terrifying. what were you thinking when you were trapped by flames and had lincoln in your lap? and what were you saying to dave, the driver? most of the time, i was
healthy baby boy named lincoln at a hospital in paradise. 12 hours later as the camp fire raced toward the hospital, the hospital said they needed to flee. they jumped in a car with a stranger, a mechanical engineer with no medical training and michelle made apact said if it comes down to it, if you have to run, take the baby. leave me behind. michelle sanders joins us now on the phone. how scary. tell us what that warning was like when you heard you had to flee the hospital. at first it seemed so surreal. but once we got outside and saw the absolute chaos it was absolutely terrifying. a guy named dave i guess he was just a hospital worker, but had no medical training. he put you and the baby in his car and he was going to take you to the nearest hospital, which as we understand was in chico, 20 miles away. how long did that trip take?