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Calif. Doctor Braved Wildfire on Motorcycle to Reach Premature Babies

At first he took his truck, but he realized it would be hard to maneuver with dangerous roads and closed off areas, so he returned home

A courageous California doctor used a motorcycle to drive through the Santa Rosa wildfires to get to eight premature babies during the predawn hours of Oct. 9 just as the situation was intensifying.

"I got called at 2 a.m. because the flames were getting close enough to the hospital so the staff thought that we’d have to evacuate," Dr. Scott Witt, the medical director for the newborn intensive care unit at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, told NBC News in a phone interview Friday.

Witt, 45, was with his wife and four children at the time and safety had become a priority for his newborn patients as well as his own household.

His family chose to evacuate to a nearby church in Sebastopol, and Witt headed to the hospital. At first he took his truck, but he realized it would be hard to maneuver with dangerous roads and closed off areas, so he returned home.

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