When wildfires hit, people sometimes only have mere moments to escape. Delaying fleeing the area can cost people their lives.

This means having to make difficult decisions.

The Weaver family in Santa Rosa, California were heartbroken when their 9-year-old Bernese Mountain dog Izzy ran away trying to flee the flames of a devastating wildfire that was about to engulf their home.

The family did not have the time to chase after her, they needed to get away from the fires immediately.

Izzy ran to escape the flames.

The Weavers needed to do the same.

“My parents woke up with flames surrounding their house in Wikiup Bridge Way and had seconds to get out,” their daughter Beckyjean Widen said on Facebook. “In the chaos of trying to escape, my parent’s dog Izzy ran from them. My mom couldn’t chase after her without risking her own life.”

Imagine the horror of being in such a situation.

If you spend time trying to chase the dog, you put your whole family at risk but if you don’t, you put the dog’s life at risk. It was a terrible situation for the family.

“They had to drive through walls of flames and across a burning wooden bridge to get to Mark West Springs Road and to safety,” Widen continued.

The family thought they lost everything.

The Weavers knew they had lost all of their possessions but that’s not what mattered. The family was upset at having to leave Izzy behind.

They hoped that by some miracle she survived. 2 members of the family made their way back to the property, even after having been turned away by police.

“They lost everything, but my mom was most devastated about leaving Izzy. My brother and husband were determined to try to get back to my parents property to see if by some miracle Izzy survived,” Widen wrote on Facebook. “They were turned away by police officers, but if you know my brother Jack or husband Patrick…neither one likes to be told no. They ended up hiking just under 3 miles to my parent’s property.”

The 2 men filmed the moments they returned to the property. The smoke was still thick in the air and their land was still smoldering in some areas.

Nothing was left of their house.

A tractor and their vineyards survived, however. Then something magical happened.

The men called out for Izzy and she came to them. She was covered in soot and ash but she had survived the fire.

“When she came exploding out, that was an incredibly gratifying moment,” Jack Weaver told NBC News, according to TODAY. “I was so excited that I dropped the phone.”

What an ordeal Izzy went through.

She is a fighter. Izzy has survived cancer twice and now has survived a devastating wildfire. She would soon be reunited with her family who had been so worried about her safety.

“(My mom has) gone through a lot. The goal was to try to put her mind at ease one way or the other,” Jack said. “We didn’t believe (Izzy) would’ve survived.”

See the heartwarming reunion in the video below!

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Source: The Washington Post/Beckyjean Widen