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PARADISE — Butte County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Parmley was on Pentz Road attempting to rescue four nurses when his patrol car broke down.

With embers swirling around him, he set out on foot surrounded by flames. Parmley switched on his body camera “in hopes of capturing what he thought were going to be the last moments of his life,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea released the dramatic three-minute video on Thursday in response to a public records request. Most deputies did not turn on their cameras, the sheriff said, and Parmley’s footage might be the only of its kind from the sheriff’s office.

It begins as Parmley was on Pentz Road near Feather River Hospital to rescue nurses. He soon encountered neighbors walking in a daze. It was morning but the sky was as dark as night.

“Oh, it’s not good,” Parmley said as a woman screamed in the distance. Three individuals appeared, walking ahead of him with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. “Hey guys walk toward the left,” the deputy is heard saying.

A nurse asks him: “Are they coming for us?”

“Watch out, watch out,” an unidentified man shouts. Parmley’s camera is pointed to where an engine can be heard but not seen; the sheriff’s office said he had 10 yards of visibility.

Seconds later, the headlights of a tractor peek through the dense smoke, as Parmley pulls out his flashlight and signals for the driver to stop. “Can we get in?” someone asks. “Yeah, come on,” the driver said, honking his horn to announce his presence.

“There’s no room,” the woman said. “Get in,” Parmley told her.

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Since the Nov. 8 fire tore through Paradise, scores of residents have told stories of jumping into the cars of strangers to escape the flames. The unidentified tractor driver said he could “only fit one or two.”

The deputy then walks to what appears to be a fire engine with a law enforcement officer inside. Parmley piles in as the driver says, “OK, just everybody stay quiet, OK?”