California wildfire kills one
Firefighters struggle to contain flames forcing residents to flee
REDDING: One person was killed in a rapidly moving wildfire that sent residents fleeing from a northern California city as homes and businesses burned and power was cut, fire officials said.
A bulldozer operator was killed yesterday in the so-called Carr Fire, a blaze in Shasta County that has tripled in size in the last two days to 11,300ha, the state’s forestry and fire protection department (Cal Fire) said.
The blaze crossed the Sacramento River and now threatens hundreds of homes on the western fringes of the city of Redding.
Cal Fire said it had been ignited by the mechanical failure of a vehicle.
“The fire is moving so fast that law enforcement is doing evacuations as fast as we can. There have been some injuries to civilians and firefighters,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean told the Sacramento Bee newspaper.
“It’s way too dynamic and burning quickly.”
Roads out of the city of 90,000 people were jammed with motorists trying to escape the flames, social media postings showed.
Two residents who chose not to leave were 61-year-old Rob Wright and his wife, who planned to fight off flames from approaching their house with a high-powered water hose.
“We were fortunate enough that the wind changed about hours ago and it is pushing the fire back,” said Wright.
“We are just waiting it out ... crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.”
More than 1,700 firefighters were battling the blaze, Cal Fire said.