Alarmed residents drove over yards to escape fire

Fire rages in Redding, burns devastating path

REDDING, Calif. — Jim Chapin had dined out after work Thursday, confident that a distant wildfire would not reach his neighborhood while he was away.

But when the Redding, California, resident, 79, got home around 7:30 p.m., police were telling people to hurry up and go. Chapin’s wife gathered prescriptions and the dogs and left. He stayed behind to hose down the roof and fallen leaves.

A half-hour later, fire was burning trees behind his neighbors’ homes and winds were whipping branches, burning leaves, garbage can lids and other debris. He feared he would be hit in the head.

“Everybody else had left,” Chapin said. “There was just all kinds of debris flying around in the air. Hot embers and hot leaves coming down all over the yard. I figured I better get out of here.”

He jumped in his car and almost immediately was in gridlock. Drivers honked, jumped the curb and cut off other cars. There was no way for firefighters to get into the Lake Redding Estates subdivision, which has just one way in and out.

“Some people were panicking so much they were driving up on people’s yards just to get around other cars,” Chapin said. “It was crazy.”

Chapin was among thousands to flee the deadly Carr Fire that exploded Thursday night, jumped the Sacramento River and raced into the western outskirts of Redding, a city of about 92,000, about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.

In Chapin’s neighborhood of about 700 residents, an Associated Press reporter counted 66 destroyed homes.

“One of the things we love about living in Redding is there’s no real traffic, so to be bumper-to-bumper on these little streets we zip up and down most times is pretty surreal,” said Kim Niemer, community services director with the city’s recreation department.

On Thursday morning, west Redding resident Alayne Rodriguez received a call at work from her husband, Rafael, that their apartment complex was being evacuated. It turned out to be faulty information, but it gave the couple warning.

With the fire edging closer, they fetched their Goldendoodle, Jack, and packed the car with computers, legal documents and a few photo books. Rodriguez, 26, grabbed the dress she wore at their 2014 wedding.

They helped neighbors pack and left shortly after 7 p.m., not even half an hour before her neighborhood received its order to evacuate.

“Because the fire spread so quickly, it added a tinge of panic to our decision making,” Rodriguez said.

Chapin returned on Friday to Lake Redding Estates and cried when he found his home still standing.

“I thank the man upstairs for that,” Chapin said.