And I Thought We Had a Bad Weekend

Woman gives birth, fights off bees, starts wildfire in Northern California

A woman fought off bees, started a fire and survived on apples -- all after giving birth in a lonely stretch of Northern California forest, she told a Bay Area TV station.

The woman, Amber Pangborn, 35, of Oroville, made a hasty decision to take an unfamiliar shortcut while driving to her parents’ house after going into labor Thursday.
Instead, she got lost.

“I thought we were going to die,” she told KCRA-TV. “And there was no cell service, there was no ... there was nothing.”

But Pangborn’s baby wouldn’t wait and she had no choice but to give birth alone. She named her daughter Marisa.

And then came the bees and mosquitoes.

“I tried to not get them to sting her,” Pangborn told KCRA. The bees wanted the placenta, she said with a chuckle. She was stung while defending her daughter, she said.

By Saturday, Pangborn’s desperation reached a fever pitch.

“I was just there at the end, thinking, 'Oh my God." I wasn’t sure if we were going to actually get out of there,” she said.

Pangborn started a fire in a desperate attempt to summon help, but the flames quickly grew out of control.

“Like, the whole side of the mountain caught on fire. I was looking at Marisa and was like, ‘I think Mommy just started a forest fire,’” she said.

But the tactic worked, and Pangborn was spotted by investigators.

It's going to seem like so fun in about 20 years.