AUBURN, Calif. --
A Placer County sheriff's deputy carried a woman from her burning home Sunday as he tried to evacuate a neighborhood.
Deputy Ken Skogen was on Parkway Place as flames roared through a neighborhood.
"I was doing evacuations," Skogen said. "A man says, 'My mom is home,' and he points to a house that's on fire."
Skogen, who has a 3-year-old daughter, raced to a side window and saw an elderly woman holding a walker. He said she refused to move.
"Flames were coming down the side hallway, filling with smoke," Skogen said.
The deputy said he went to the side door, which was blocked, and nearly had to karate-kick it open.
"She wouldn't let go of her walker," Skogen said. "I had to take her fingers and pry them off."
Skogen said there's nothing left of the home but the foundation.
When asked if he felt like a hero after the rescue, Skogen stayed modest.
"Absolutely not. It needed to be done. Anybody would have done it," Skogen said. "I just wanted to feel what it was like to be a firefighter; those guys are the real heroes."
The flames, which leveled homes and left several vehicles charred in their wake, broke out Sunday in an area northeast of the intersection of Highway 49 and Bell Road.
About 60 homes and businesses were burned in the wildfire.
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