As a California fire closes in, a doctor’s harrowing quest to save newborns

Neonatal physician Dr. Scott Witt of Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital sits on the BMW motorcycle he rode through fiery streets to rescue infants as flames advanced on the hospital. Neonatal physician Dr. Scott Witt of Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital sits on the BMW motorcycle he rode through fiery streets to rescue infants as flames advanced on the hospital. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 78 Caption Close As a California fire closes in, a doctor’s harrowing quest to save newborns 1 / 78 Back to Gallery

It was 2 a.m. when Dr. Scott Witt got a call at home telling him he was needed to help evacuate the babies under his care in the neonatal intensive care unit at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital.

The Tubbs Fire, which had erupted hours earlier, was sweeping across much of the city and its flames were nearing the hospital.

Within minutes of the call, the director of the hospital’s neonatal ICU was steering his pickup truck away from his Santa Rosa home toward Highway 101, leaving behind his wife and four of his children. It was the beginning of a harrowing early-morning adventure in a quest to save eight newborn babies.

It did not get off to a smooth start. By the time Witt, 45, reached the freeway, it had been closed. Flames from the fire had jumped across its lanes and traffic was a mess.

Figuring it would be easier to weave through traffic on his motorcycle, Witt turned around and raced back home to get it.

It was a 15-minute drive to his Fountaingrove neighborhood , and when he arrived, police were advising residents over loudspeakers to evacuate. The fire was still far away, Witt thought, but he asked his family to do as police requested and leave. He said he needed to focus on the babies under his unit’s care and didn’t want to also worry about his family.

He then climbed onto his motorcycle, a 2015 BMW R nineT, and navigated side streets toward the hospital, 4 miles away.

“I got to where the fire was and started skirting around it,” he said. “It wasn’t all that harrowing, it just involved darting around traffic, riding on the shoulder, sliding in the gravel. The police, when I explained, let me go through.”

When he arrived at the hospital, flames were approaching from two sides. Witt scanned the parking lot for a spot where patients could shelter if the building caught fire, as advised by the hospital’s fire safety plan, but saw nothing.

“In this case,” he said, “no place was safe.”

Inside the hospital, he — along with another doctor and the nurses — prepared the unit’s babies, most of them born prematurely, to be taken by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital about 6 miles away. They moved them to the labor and delivery unit, closer to a fire-free exit, and began loading them into ambulances as they became available. It took multiple trips over about three hours.

As the last two babies were loaded into an ambulance, Witt realized the only way he could make it to Memorial Hospital was on his motorcycle.

“At that point, the fire had come close enough that I knew the only way I could get there was to follow the ambulance on the freeway,” he said. “I figured it would be OK if I followed the ambulance and got some draft.”

The ambulance, with Witt on his motorcycle close behind, sped onto Highway 101, which was closed to all but emergency vehicles. The smoke from the fires was so dense, Witt had to rely on the ambulance’s lights to guide him. Flames licked at the side of the freeway and embers whipped through the air and across the pavement. Fallen power lines and branches were scattered across the roadway.

Witt said he simply tried to steer clear of hazards and stay focused on getting to the new hospital to take care of his young patients.

“On a motorcycle, you’re pretty versatile,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking of the danger because I was just thinking about what the babies would need. I know each baby personally, I know what they need and I wanted to pass that on to their new doctors.

“I wanted to be there for them.”

The babies, and Witt, arrived safely at Memorial Hospital.

“I wouldn’t say it was the scariest thing I did in my life but close to it,” Witt said. “It didn’t seem scary at the time. It seemed like the fire was far enough away. But later, looking back, it seems a little dangerous.”

With the newborns safe and being cared for, Witt called his family. They were safely sheltered at their church. He joined them there, to recover from his ordeal, and wait.

It was Monday morning, the first day of the fires that would bring so much destruction. About noon, Witt and his family learned their home and the rest of their neighborhood had been destroyed.

“We lost everything,” he said. “But we’ll be OK. We have insurance, and we intend to rebuild. And the support from the community has been amazing.”

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan