Firefighter shares story of survival after Scotts Valley tornado – NBC Bay Area

A firefighter shares his story of survival after a tornado touched down in Scotts Valley over the weekend.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Manny Garcia told NBC Bay Area Tuesday he was driving on Mt Hermon Road in Scotts Valley on Saturday when he noticed the rain starting to get heavier by the second.

“All of a sudden I see a van in front of me start moving, start leaning to the side,” he said. “And the next thing I know I’m up in the air. Got turned around, the other direction a little bit and just got lost.”

Garcia said he never considered it could be a tornado. But that’s exactly what they encountered when his Cal Fire truck ended up on its side. His tools and medical kit, which were in the back of the truck when the twister hit, disappeared along with the truck’s camper shell.

Garcia ended up kicking out the windshield to get out of the overturned vehicle.

“They started helping me, which I want to thank them for helping. They started kicking in the windshield,” Garcia said.

Garcia added that he couldn’t believe it. He recorded a video on his mobile phone after calling for help.

The first responder then went into rescue mode. The victim becomes the rescuer.

“I just wanted help to come and started assessing to get a better picture because I couldn’t give a good report on the conditions to get the resources needed to start treating the patients there,” he said .

Three days later, Garcia said he is still distraught.

“A little bit,” he said. “It’s not something we see every day around here. When you go on calls, you’re usually on the other side of things. You’re usually helping people. In this case, I was lucky that there were people who could help me.”

Garcia is recovering at home, but he said he’s ready to get back to his fire truck after an unimaginable ordeal.