Snatched from storm's teeth

PARADISE – Time was running out.

With another fierce winter storm heading toward the mountains of Butte County on Wednesday, the window of finding the Dominguez family was getting smaller by the minute.

And with the clouds growing thicker and the wind starting to pick up, officers in a California Highway Patrol helicopter made a stunning find on their final pass of the day:

A man jumping and waving frantically in the snow beside the word "HELP" written in twigs.

The desperate signal – found three days after Frederick Dominguez and his three children wandered into the wilderness in search of a Christmas tree – brought a massive rescue effort to a miraculous conclusion.

"When they turned around," a jovial Dominguez would later say at a nearby hospital, "I was just praying to God, saying 'Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.' "

The helicopter's pilot had been told not to fly Wednesday, but took advantage of a brief break in the weather to make a 30-minute loop into the steep canyons that rescuers could not reach on foot.

Minutes after the helicopter landed on a small dirt road about 12:45 p.m. and scooped up Dominguez and his children – 18-year-old Christopher, 15-year-old Alexis and 12-year-old Joshua – the weather turned again. It wasn't expected to ease up for two more days.

"The snow was at our heels," said David White, a paramedic on the CHP helicopter. "We decided we'd give it a shot."

Five hours after the family's rescue, Dominguez, 38, sat in a hospital gown and recounted how they survived three days and three nights in the elements.

They carried no food or water, and Dominguez had no survival training. He hadn't seen snow since he was 12.

Dominguez said the family took shelter in a damp concrete tunnel beneath the road where the helicopter landed, surviving temperatures that dipped into the 20s overnight.

Snow squalls dumped up to 6 feet on the region since they walked away from their truck and into the woods at 5 p.m. Sunday.

They were found about four miles from where they parked their truck.

The family sang songs during the days. But the nights – when an icy wind burst through their makeshift shelter – were miserable.

At one point, Joshua asked his father if he thought they would survive.

"Son," he replied, "I would tell you what I bought you for Christmas if I didn't think we're going to make it."

Dominguez and his children – all dressed in jeans, sneakers and light jackets – headed into the woods about 115 miles north of Sacramento just before nightfall Sunday with a battery-powered saw.

After passing up a couple of trees, they settled on a keeper, cut it down and headed back toward their truck.

But it quickly became clear they were headed in the wrong direction. They ditched the tree and trudged on until they came upon a road. Frederick and Joshua went one way. His oldest son and daughter took off in the other direction.

As a pitch black sky settled over the forest, the family regrouped. Alexis was exhausted. It began to snow, so the family took shelter near a big log, using branches to form a roof.

Monday morning brought a fresh layer of snow. Heading back onto the road, the family realized they needed a better shelter and found the 15-foot-diameter culvert.

Christopher wrapped his siblings' feet in his favorite shirt and joked with his dad that he owed him a new one.

At one point, off in the distance, the family heard the faint roar of sirens and the barking of dogs. But help didn't come.

One of Alexis' shoes fell off, and by Tuesday morning her foot had turned black from frostbite.

Through it all, Frederick said he tried to keep the mood light, talking about eating at In-N-Out Burger.

He said he never cried or panicked.

"With the kids, you can't let them see you like that," he said.

Then came Wednesday, when Alexis was the first to hear the helicopter. Frederick burst into the snow in his bare feet, at one point falling over rocks.

The three children were jumping up and down as the helicopter landed and Alexis was in tears, White said.

All four family members were hypothermic but not seriously injured, and were discharged from the hospital around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"If we hadn't gotten them now, there's a pretty good chance we wouldn't have gotten them until at least Friday," said Rob Watts of the Butte County Search and Rescue Team.

Dr. Kurt Bower, who attended to the family at Feather River Hospital, was not optimistic when he first heard the family was missing.

"My first inclination was that if they don't know what they're doing, they're already dead," he said.

Dominguez, a native of Southern California who had recently moved to Butte County, said he'll probably opt for an artificial Christmas tree next year.

From the second the family was rescued, friends were giddy with relief.

As Frederick Dominguez emerged from the helicopter at an abandoned elementary school, Brian Clarke – his best friend and the fiance of the children's mother – could barely contain himself.

"Hey, where's the tree?" he yelled.

Earlier Clarke had called the children's mother, Lisa Sams, who is Dominguez's ex-wife.

"They found four of them," he said. "They're coming home."

"Oh my God," she said. "Thank you, Jesus."

As news spread of the rescue, Sams held a private reunion with her family at the hospital.

"It was like butterflies in my stomach, like when you're going on your very first date," she said after the tearful reunion.

Barbara Sams, the children's grandmother, said family members gathered at their Paradise home were crying and hugging when they learned the four were found alive.

"I am so happy, so blessed," she said, her voice catching with emotion. "It's going to be the happiest Christmas we've ever had and probably will ever have."

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191. Sangree reported from Butte County and Lillis from Sacramento. Niesha Lofing contributed reporting from Sacramento.