Thousands of people have been evacuated as terrifying wildfires rage on in California.
The Allen family was among them. The family of four escaped in two vehicles: Mum Whitney Allen took eight-month old Jordan in one car, while dad Joe Allen drove three-year-old Olivia in another.
They were fleeing the northern California town of Paradise, which was almost entirely destroyed by the Camp Fire.
Remarkable video taken from Joe’s vehicle shows the real life horror of the fires – the sky is lit up orange, smoke clouds the road making visibility difficult and the flames burn on either side of the road.
But the video has been praised because of how Joe kept Olivia – who was celebrating her third birthday – calm.
His wife Whitney told KTVU her husband’s military training helped him keep his nerve in high pressure situations.
“He was of course worried. At one point we both thought we weren’t going to make it out,” she said.
Joe and Olivia can be heard talking throughout the video.
“There’s so much fire here. We’re gonna get on fire,” Olivia is heard saying.
“Hey, guess what? We’re not gonna catch on fire okay,” Allen promised his daughter. “We’re gonna stay away from it and we’ll be just fine, okay? We’re doing all right.”
He then breaks into song: “Baby, it’ll be all right,” he sings while navigating his way through the dense smoke and embers.
“I can’t see my mom,” Olivia said at one point. “We should go. We should go back home.”
