Carr Fire

CHP officer rescues fawn from Carr Fire in Redding

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

In this photo released July 28, 2018, CHP Sergeant David Fawson holds a month-old fawn that was located by Cal Fire without a mother inside the Carr Fire line near Redding, Calif.
kgo-California Highway Patrol via AP

REDDING, Calif. -- A highway patrol officer who became an internet sensation after he helped rescue a month-old fawn from the Carr Fire 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.

MAPS: Wildfires burning across California

"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."

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.

VIDEO: Group tries to corral horse running free in Carr Fire area

Crews worked to corral a horse that was running free in the Carr Fire burn area. They almost had her, but then she ran off.

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.

Fawson was on a two-day deployment in Redding to help the agency fight the Carr Fire. More than 50 officers from the CHP Golden Gate Division are helping during the wildfire that has destroyed more than 700 homes and claimed six lives in Redding.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Haven Humane Society in Anderson has taken in 500 dogs, cats, birds, reptiles and livestock during the fires.

Fawson said thousands of first responders are working to save human lives, structures, and animals. Helping the fawn was a small victory.

"Any one of us would have done that," he said.

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