California Highway Patrol Sgt. David Fawson holds a month-old fawn that was located by Cal Fire without a mother insidere the Carr Fire line near Redding, Calif. Sawson evacuated the deer to safety for care with a wildlife rescue. (AP)
A highway patrol officer who became an internet sensation after he helped rescue a month-old fawn from a Northern California wildfire said Monday he didn't expect the photos to go viral.
On Saturday morning, California Highway Patrol Sgt. David Fawson of San Francisco helped Cal Fire officers rescue a fawn from fast-growing wildfire in Redding, about 230 miles north of San Francisco.
"We were driving through an active fire, when Cal Fire said, 'Can you take a deer out here for us?'" he said. "I held it in my lap as we drove out." officer fawson AP
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said people can return to several neighborhoods in western Redding as of Monday morning. The huge blaze near Redding has displaced 38,000 from their homes and killed six people. (AP)
He and his partner took the fawn to safer area miles away, but the baby deer didn't run away like Fawson thought it would.
"It stayed right by me," he said. "When it tried to nurse on one of my fingers, I thought, 'This is truly a young baby.'"
Fawson, 38, said he asked a colleague to take a photo because he knew his four daughters, ages 7, 9, 12 and 15, "would love it." The popularity of the photos online took him by surprise. Pictures of the fawn sitting in his lap in a patrol car and licking his neck have been shared more than 16,000 times on Facebook.
Representatives from Haven Wild Care's fawn rescue program came to retrieve her within two hours. They named her Carra, after the fire she escaped.
Photo's at source
This is truly a humane officer. God Bless him & his family !! And may God the Father protect him from the assholes out there !!