14-year-old girl pulled from 'tangled mess of a house' after California mudslide

Firefighters in Montecito, California, were able to rescue a 14-year-old girl trapped inside her mangled home on Tuesday following a deadly mudslide that claimed the lives of at least five people, according to NBC News.

Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said that Lauren Cantin was discovered by a team of firefighters and rescue dogs who traced her muffled screams to her house, which had been swept away by floodwaters.

See photos of the disaster:

Responders spent six hours in the pounding rain digging Cantin out of her "tangled mess of a house" using the jaws of life and other tools, Eliason said.

"To be able to have her come out safely and as unscathed as she was, it was pretty phenomenal," said Andy Rupp, a Montecito Fire Protection District firefighter.

Among those surprised by the astounding rescue was Cantin herself. "I thought I was dead there for a minute," the shaken-up teen, who was caked in mud, told her rescuers as she was carried away on a stretcher.

Tuesday's mudslide tore through Southern California after the region, which was recently scorched by wildfires, received over five inches of rain, causing the over-saturated hillsides to send massive runoff rushing onto Highway 101 below.

Multiple homes were reportedly ripped from their foundations by the powerful mudslide, while other homes in the area burned down due to a gas line explosion related to the storm.

About 21,000 people in the wealthy Montecito neighborhood were given mandatory evacuation orders by Monday afternoon, according to the Associated Press.

County spokeswoman Amber Anderson said that only 200 of the 1,200 residents contacted in person had left their homes by Monday evening.

Santa Barbara County authorities report that there is currently a backlog of 75 calls for rescue or evacuation from the area.