Calfire mechanic dies, bringing Carr Fire death toll to 8

LOS ANGELES – A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection mechanic who was assigned to the Carr Fire died in a vehicle crash in Tehama County early Thursday morning, the eighth death connected to the furious blaze that has scorched roughly 177,000 acres in Northern California, officials said.

The victim, described as a heavy equipment mechanic, died in a crash on Highway 99, Calfire said in a statement.

The crash happened at 12:17 a.m. after a Dodge Ram 5500 veered off the highway’s right shoulder and slammed into a tree, according to Officer Ken Reineman of the California Highway Patrol’s Red Bluff station. The vehicle caught fire, and the victim has not been publicly identified, Reineman said.

The Thursday morning wreck led to the eighth death connected to the Carr Fire, which has proved to be the most lethal of the year. Four Redding residents, a Redding firefighter, a bulldozer operator and a Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker also have died in connection with the blaze, which has destroyed more than 1,000 homes, officials have said.

As the Carr Fire has moved deeper into the forest and away from structures in Redding, firefighter commanders have routinely warned of the dangers of driving on roadways clogged by a growing number of emergency personnel in the area.

For days, the streets in western Redding and the rural communities along the Sacramento River have been a gauntlet for law enforcement and firefighters who have had to negotiate the sometimes-narrow winding roads that are half-blocked by massive PG&E trucks. Firefighters roam road shoulders patrolling for hot spots, while day by day, more Shasta County residents return to the area.

“The biggest hazard for this operational period is going to be driving,” Carr Fire public safety officer Baraka Carter told firefighters at a morning briefing earlier this week. “With the number of resources we have assigned to this incident, the number of utility companies that are actively engaged and the number of residents we are (repopulating,) that number is going to increase tenfold.”

The mechanic’s death came as firefighters across the state continue to battle more than a dozen wildfires that have scorched more than 600,000 acres, bolstered by an extremely warm July and years of drought that have left underbrush ripe to burn.