(CNN) Matt McDermott was trying to get out of town.
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The Sonoma resident was searching for an escape route as wildfiresthat had ignited the night before raced through parts of NorthernCalifornia and began to surround the area where he lived.
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Then he saw something that stopped him in his tracks -- a tree fullof fire.
Bright orange and red flames flickered and flared through severalgaps in the large tree's trunk. Smoke poured out near the tree'stop, like a chimney.
McDermott said it was an unbelievable sight on what was anunbelievable day, as he crisscrossed the roads trying to find thebest way out of the fiery madness.
"I've definitely not seen anything like this before," McDermott,who's lived in Sonoma for 10 years, told CNN. "We wanted to know theescape routes in case we needed them. The route to Poloma was open.I just stopped on the side of the road and the whole ridge is onfire."