Seven dead, seven missing as California wildfires spread
The death toll in the US state of California’s wildfires rose to seven as shaken survivors recounted the horror of watching fast moving flames whip through neighborhoods and devour their homes.
An army of firefighters from across the country struggled in California Monday to control 17 large-scale blazes that have reduced expensive homes to smoldering piles of rubble, and turned tens of thousands of acres into ashen wastelands, AFP reported on Monday.
“I’ve been a lifelong resident of this community, and I’ve never seen a fire with such destruction here in this area ever before,” said Shasta County Supervisor Leonard Moty commenting on the Carr fire, one of the largest.
Alyce Macken said she had only minutes to flee her home in the town of Redding with her husband Ted as the flames swept closer.
“At six o’clock in the morning there was a knock on the door, a pounding, and it was the sheriff telling us that we had 15 minutes to get out,” Macken said.
“We were out in 10 minutes. I was shaking, it just went by really fast.”
Macken, who is retired, said that she met other panic stricken neighbors at a nearby shopping center – and watched from afar as her home went up in flames.
Some 38,000 people have been evacuated in Shasta County due to the Carr fire, officials said.
A thick smoke haze covered a large segment of northern California, severely limiting visibility and contributing to breathing problems.
According to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), 12,000 firefighters from as far away as Florida and New Jersey have deployed across the state.
A firefighter identified as Brian Hughes died on Sunday while battling the Ferguson Fire, which is near Yosemite National Park.
The remains of a person who ignored Carr fire evacuation orders was found in a burned out residence on Sunday, said Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko.
Two firefighters were killed earlier battling the Carr blaze and three people – a 70-year-old woman and her two great-grandchildren aged four and five – perished when their Redding home was swallowed up by flames.
Firefighters and police are searching for seven people reported missing, Bosenko said.
He also said that 600 National Guard soldiers had been deployed to help in support duties such as roadblocks.
Redding police chief Roger Moore warned that looting has become a problem since evacuations began. Two people, a man and a women, were later arrested on suspicion of looting evacuated homes in Redding.
The Carr fire covers more than 95,000 acres and was just 17 percent contained, the state authority Cal Fire said late Sunday.
The National Weather Service issued a “Red Flag” warning for the Shasta county area through Monday morning, warning of low humidity and possible strong gusts of wind.
It described the Carr blaze as “a large and dangerous” fire “in which spreading is not driven by the wind, but rather the fire itself.”