Hero filmed saving a bunny from a California wildfire

Caleb Wadman, one of the two potential overnight heroes who saved a rabbit from the wildfires in Southern California, has described his daring rescue.

Speaking with Inside Edition, he said: ‘In the video that everybody sees, I was going crazy at the fact that [the rabbit] was screaming.’

Wadman, 21, said that the heat was ‘immense’ as he tried valiantly to rescue the animal, which he said was crying in pain.

In the episode airing on Monday, December 11, Wadman’s mother, Sheri, said: ‘I saw the video that morning, and I guess I just started to cry actually.’

She added: ‘I thought that was very kind of him, but then I realized how close he actually was to the fire.’

On Friday, another man named Oscar Gonzales came forward claiming he’d saved the rabbit, but Wadman showed the same red sweatshirt he was wearing in the rescue video to Inside Edition.

Wadman’s claim has been backed up by a local veterinary office and a wildlife rehabilitation center

The rabbit suffered burns to its ears and feet and has a long road to recovery

Wadman’s story is also backed up by a local veterinary office and a wildlife rehabilitation center.

He and the injured rabbit reunite on the show.

The creature, who is being treated at the California Wildlife Center, suffered burns to its ears and feet.

Doctor Duane Tom, who is treating the rabbit, told Inside Edition that Wadman’s actions saved the animal, but the rabbit still has a long road to recovery.

Wadman told theHuffington Post that he was on the highway in La Conchita when he spotted the wild rabbit ‘in significant distress.’ 

Speaking with Inside Edition, Wadman said: ‘In the video that everybody sees, I was going crazy at the fact that [the rabbit] was screaming’

‘I just ran out,’ he said. ‘I had faith… and that’s when the bunny ran back towards the flames. And I was like, “No, baby bunny, I’m here. I’m going to take care of you.”‘

He then drove to the rabbit to Conejo Valley Veterinary Hospital, and it was later transferred to the California Wildlife Center.

Staff at the veterinary hospital said that the man who brought in the injured animal was wearing the same clothes as the rescuer in the viral video, and told them he’d found the rabbit in the same area the footage was shot. 

Oscar Gonzales, 19, had insisted on Friday that he was the mystery animal lover filmed frantically trying to rescue a rabbit from the blaze, claiming he’d saved an ‘entire rabbit family’ from the flames.

Gonzales said in his own account that he’d not taken the rabbit to the vets but had carried it to the other side of the road and let it go. 

While it appears as though the 19-year-old may not have been the rescuer in the viral video, as first suggested, that is not to say he did not rescue another rabbit.

A red sweatshirt-clad man is pictured saving a rabbit from the wildfires ravaging Southern California

Gonzales, who works for a commercial refrigerator installer, lives in Pacoima with his fiancée and their five-month-old son, said he’d been driving a friend home from work in Sylmar when he said he saw a white rabbit running along the side of the highway as the flames raged next to it. 

‘I knew it was dangerous but I couldn’t leave them to burn!’ he told DailyMail.com on Friday.

Gonzales said he chased after it, before it hopped straight into his arms and allowed him to carry it to the other side of the highway where there were no flames. He even claimed he in fact saved the whole ‘rabbit family’.

‘I saw two other rabbits with it. I thought to myself it was the rabbit’s family.

‘The rabbit’s family probably thought I was gonna hurt it [but] when I picked up the rabbit, they followed,’ he said.

Gonzales said he then took it to the other side of the highway and set it free again before getting back in his car.

Oscar Gonzales, 19, has also claimed to be the rabbit savior. There is a chance that he saved a different rabbit