Six people killed as Northern California wildfire spreads

A 70-year-old woman and her two great-grandchildren were among six people killed when a wildfire engulfed entire communities in northern California, officials and family members said.

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told a news conference near the city of Redding at the edge of the blaze on Sunday one more person had been killed in a residence consumed by fire, bringing the total to six, including two firefighters. He said the latest victim had not complied with an evacuation order.

Authorities are still looking for seven people after finding nine others who had been reported missing, Bosenko said.

More than 38,000 people remained under evacuation orders on Sunday in and around Redding, a city of 90,000 people about 260 kilometers north of the state capital, Sacramento.

Redding Police Sergeant Todd Cogle confirmed that three bodies discovered at a fireravaged home on the outskirts of Redding were two children and their great-grandmother.

The victims were identified by relatives on their Facebook accounts and in news reports as James Roberts, 5, his sister Emily, 4, and their great grandmother, Melody Bledsoe, 70.

Bledsoe’s granddaughter, Amanda Woodley, said on Facebook the elderly woman desperately put a wet blanket over the children as their home burned.

“Grandma did everything she could to save them,” Woodley said.

The children’s mother, Sherry Bledsoe, was quoted by the Sacramento Bee as saying: “My kids are deceased. That’s all I can say.”

Bledsoe’s husband wept as he recalled trying to get back to the house after running an errand on Thursday, only to learn the fire was closing in on them. Ed Bledsoe told the Sacramento Bee he spoke to the children on the phone as he raced in vain to return in time to save them.

A Go Fund Me effort to help had raised half of its $30,000 goal by Sunday.

The Carr Fire, which has destroyed more than 650 homes, is the deadliest and most destructive of nearly 90 wildfires burning from Texas to Oregon.