Santa Rosa doctor takes harrowing motorcycle ride to help save preemies during fire

A Santa Rosa doctor's harrowing motorcycle ride through the city during the Tubbs fire may have been the difference between life and death for eight premature babies at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital.

As told to KTVU, Dr. Scott Witt, the director of Sutter's neonatal ICU, was on his was to the Mark West Springs Road hospital from his Fountaingrove home in his pickup truck early Monday after getting a 2 a.m. call about the coming flames when he was stymied by flames across the freeway.

Not to be deterred, Witt went back home and traded his pickup for his trusty BMW motorcycle, then braving four miles of wind and debris to get to his tiny patients.

"In California, you can split lanes so I just kind of went down the middle of lanes and got past everybody," Witt told the TV station.

Once there, he and his team prepared the babies for the successful six-mile ride to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, which would become the newborns' temporary home.

The hospital reopened to patients Tuesday, more than a week after the fire tore through the city.

As for Witt and his family, their home is a complete loss, but they are thankful to have each other.

See more of his story below: