Wildfire claims 2nd life; thousands more evacuate
An explosive wildfire that roared with little warning into a Northern California city claimed a second life and thousands more people abandoned their homes, some of them slipping out just ahead of the walls of flame, authorities said Friday.
In all, an estimated 37,000 people have fled from the so-called Carr Fire, which began Monday and tripled in size overnight Thursday amid scorching temperatures, low humidity and high winds. Fire officials warned that the blaze would probably burn deeper into urban areas before there was any hope of containing it.
A day earlier, the flames turned the sky orange while sweeping through the historic Gold Rush town of Shasta and nearby Keswick, then jumping the Sacramento River into Redding, a city of about 92,000 people and the largest in the region.
Steve Hobson was one of the last to leave Lake Redding Drive. A former urban and wild land firefighter three decades ago, he planned to stay behind to save his house. But the heat burned his skin, and the smoke made it hard to breathe. He could feel the fire sucking the air from the around him, whipping up swirling embers in a “fire tornado,” he said.
Police pounded on doors telling everyone to leave.
The flames on the distant hillside looked like solar flares on the sun, he said. When it came time to flee, he had to punch through walls of burning embers on both sides of the street. A tree fell right in front of him.
“I didn’t know if I’d make it so I just got in the middle of the street, went down the middle of the street through the embers and the smoke and made it past,” Hobson said.
His perimeter fence burned along with a backyard shed and everything inside it — Christmas ornaments, china and old televisions. But his house made it through the harrowing night.
The fire is “taking down everything in its path,” said Scott McLean, a CalFire spokesman for the crews battling the blaze.
A firefighter with the Redding Fire Department was killed in Shasta County. Another firefighter hired to try to contain the flames with a bulldozer was killed Thursday, authorities said.
Some Redding residents who had not been under evacuation orders were caught off guard and had to flee with little notice.
“When it hit, people were really scrambling,” McLean said. “There was not much of a warning.”
Firefighters tried in vain to build containment around the blaze Thursday, but flames kept jumping their lines, he said.
Brett Gouvea, incident commander of the crews battling the fire, urged residents to pay close attention to the blaze, which he said was “moving with no regard for what’s in its path.”
Late Thursday, crews found the body of the bulldozer operator who had been hired privately to clear vegetation in the blaze’s path. He was the second bulldozer operator killed in a California blaze in less than two weeks.
With fire burning in the distance Liz Williams, 33, packed her car Thursday morning, just in case, even though her neighbors said it would never reach them.
When she got home from work, the flames were closing in. By evening, an orange glow appeared on the nearby hillside and ferocious winds picked up. It was time to go.
“I’ve never experienced something so terrifying in my life. Nothing could prepare you for something like this,” Williams said.