Wildfire death toll continues to mount

Rescuing the horses

REDDING: The death toll from California’s wildfires continued to mount yesterday, with eight fatalities now reported from blazes in Shasta County and near Yosemite National Park.

In Mariposa County, where firefighters have spent weeks battling the Ferguson fire, officials reported that a firefighter based at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks died after being struck by a falling tree.

Meanwhile, crews attacking the Carr fire in and around Redding said they had located another body — the fourth civilian to perish in that blaze.

Firefighters are battling 17 wildfires across the state, which have consumed a combined 81,000ha in terrain stretching from Southern California to the Oregon border, said Jonathan Cox, battalion chief and information officer with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. With so many near populated areas, ‘‘resources are obviously stretched thin,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve had 17 fires before,’’ Cox said. ‘‘But these are impacting communities — and they’re large fires, not small.’’

About 12,000 firefighters have responded to the wildfires from within California. Another 800 personnel have been deployed by the California National Guard. And 150 fire engines were on the way from as far away as Florida, officials said yesterday.

‘‘There’s a finite number of resources in California, and obviously we’re employing them at the highestpriority incidents,’’ Cox said.

The Carr fire — the largest wildfire now burning — has destroyed 517 structures and damaged 135 others, and killed six people, including a 70yearold woman and two of her greatgrandchildren.

Firefighters yesterday offered their first optimistic assessment of their battle against the Carr fire, which has forced more than 38,000 residents to evacuate. Cal Fire unified incident commander Bret Gouvea said cooler temperatures and increased humidity had given firefighters a window of opportunity to attack the massive fire. — TNS COTTONWOOD: Tucker Zimmerman has had little sleep during the raging deadly fire in Shasta County, California. The retired US Marine has rushed into a new battle, as a volunteer rescuing stranded horses and other livestock.

‘‘I’m just the guy who moves stuff around,’’ he said modestly. The ‘‘stuff’’ he speaks of refers to the panicked horses and other livestock he wrangles out of harm’s way when they are left behind after the humans have fled.

With a large trailer borrowed from his job selling tractor equipment, Zimmerman has ventured daily into evacuation zones as homeowners threatened by the Carr Fire were rushing in the other direction.

The horses were being taken to stables, rodeo grounds and ranches whose owners have opened their property to the steady stream of livestock rescued by Zimmerman since Thursday.

While Zimmerman has a proven talent for handling nervous horses, he doesn’t discriminate against twolegged creatures in need of help.

‘‘I saved a guy named Matt. He was trying to water down his house’’ as flames erupted, Zimmerman recalled. ‘‘I said, ‘Let’s go!’’’