A firefighter is sharing 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 on Tuesday was driving on Mt Hermon Road in Scotts Valley on Saturday when he noticed the rain started getting heavier by the second.
“All of a sudden, I see a van in front of me start moving, start leaning toward the side," he said. "And, next thing I know I’m up in the air. Got turned around, the other direction slightly and just got dropped."
Garcia said he never considered it could be a tornado. But that's exactly what they encountered as his Cal Fire truck ended up on its side. His tools and medical kit that were in the back of the truck when the twister hit vanished along with the truck's camper shell.
Garcia ended up kicking out the front windshield to get out of the flipped vehicle.
“They started helping me, which I want to thank them, for helping. They started kicking he windshield in," Garcia said.
Garcia added he couldn’t believe it. He shot a video on his cell phone after calling for help.
The first responder then went into rescue mode. The victim becoming the rescuer.
“I just wanted help to arrive and started assessing to get a better picture because I couldn’t give a good report on conditions to get the resources that were needed to start treating the patients there,” he said.
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Three days later, Garcia said that he’s still in bewilderment.
“A little bit," he said. "It's not something that we see every day around here. When you go to calls, you’re usually on the other side of things. You’re usually helping people. In this case, I was fortunate there were people able to help me."
Garcia is recovering at home but he said he’s ready to return to his fire truck after an unimaginable ordeal.
