Blazes rage
California wildfires lead to rising death toll, evacuations
REDDING, California — Two young children and their 70-year-old great-grandmother died in the wildfire that swept into the city of Redding with devastating speed, their family said on Saturday, raising the death toll from the blaze to five.
A tearful Sherry Bledsoe confirmed the deaths of her grandmother, Melody Bledsoe, and her children, James Roberts, 5, and Emily Roberts, 4.
The Carr Fire has charred nearly 34,000 hectares, an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco, since erupting on Monday near Redding, a city of 90,000 people about 260 kilometers north of the state capital Sacramento.
The blaze was one of about a dozen major wildfires burning across California on Saturday and of nearly 90 overall from Texas to Oregon.
Driven by gale-force winds on Thursday night, it exploded into a firestorm that leapt the Sacramento River and engulfed whole neighborhoods in and around Redding, sending thousands of people fleeing for their lives in a chaotic evacuation.
A private bulldozer operator on the fire line and a Redding firefighter were killed in the conflagration. The nearby town of Keswick, with a population of about 450, was reduced to ash.
The latest tally of 536 destroyed structures was up from 500 earlier in the day, and sure to rise. A count by The Associated Press found at least 300 of those structures were homes.
About 38,000 people remained under evacuation orders as of Saturday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Anna Noland, 49, was evacuated twice in three days before learning through video footage that the house she last saw under dark and windy skies had burned.
She expected to spend Saturday night at a shelter at Simpson College in Redding while she searches for another place to live.
“I think I’m still in shock,” Noland said. “It’s just unbelievable knowing you don’t have a house to go back to.”
Evacuation orders
On Saturday afternoon, Redding police said they were trying to locate 17 people reported missing by relatives or friends since Thursday night. Police Sergeant Todd Cogle said the number of those unaccounted for had fluctuated during the past two days — from as many as 20 to as few as 12 — as some who were reported missing turned up safe and others were added to the list.
About 160 km southwest of Redding, two blazes prompted mandatory evacuations in Mendocino County. The two fires, burning 50 km apart, started on Friday and were threatening more than 350 buildings.
Authorities also issued evacuation orders in Napa County, famous for its wine, when several structures caught fire, the Napa Valley Register reported. The blaze had blackened 150 acres and was at 10 percent containment.
Throughout the state, Cal Fire officials said more than 10,000 firefighters were on the line, making progress on 14 large wildfires.
Big fires also continued to burn outside Yosemite National Park and in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles near Palm Springs. Those fires had burned nearly 260 square kilometers.
Yosemite Valley remained closed to visitors and won’t reopen until Friday.