- Thousands have fled a terrifying wildfire, the so-called Carr Fire, as it tore through an area of northern California after tripling in size to 28,000 acres
- Late yesterday, crews found the body of a bulldozer operator, who had fought to contain the fierce blaze
- The wildfire crossed the Sacramento River and now threatens hundreds of homes on the western fringes of the city of Redding
- 'It's just chaotic. It's wild. There's a lot of fire, a lot of structures burning,' said Scott McLean, a Cal Fire spokesman for the crews battling the wildfire
Dozens of homes and businesses have already been burned to the ground in Redding, residents are evacuating, and local TV presenters were forced to flee while on air.
A bulldozer operator died in the Carr Fire, a terrifying blaze in Shasta County that has tripled in size over the last two days to 28,000 acres (11,300 hectares), 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.
The Carr Fire burns a structure along Highway 299 in Shasta, California, on Thursday, July 26. Flames swept through the communities of Shasta and Keswick before jumping the Sacramento River and reaching Redding, a city of about 90,000 people and the largest in the region
Late yesterday, crews found the body of a bulldozer operator who was hired privately to clear vegetation in the blaze's path, said Scott McLean, a Cal Fire spokesman for the crews battling the blaze.
The fire burned over the operator and his equipment, making the man the second bulldozer operator killed in a California blaze in less than two weeks.
Three firefighters and an unknown number of civilians have suffered burns, but the extent of their injuries was not known, McLean said.
'It's just chaotic. It's wild,' he said. 'There's a lot of fire, a lot of structures burning.'
Firefighters tried in vain to build containment around the blaze on Thursday but flames kept jumping their lines, he said.
'It's just a heck of a fight,' he said. 'They're doing what they can do and they get pushed out in a lot of cases. We're fighting the fight right now.'
He said the fire behavior was so erratic, there were tornadoes within the fire 'tossing around equipment, blowing windows out of Cal Fire pickup trucks'.
'Chaotic' scenes were reported across Redding, a city of 90,000 people, as fast-approaching flames destroyed at least 15 structures, forcing evacuations when officials urged residents to flee the fire's path, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Roads out of the city were jammed with motorists trying to escape the flames, social media postings showed. Thousands of residents were forced to flee the blaze.
Residents of western Redding who had not been under evacuation orders were caught off guard and had to flee with little notice, causing miles-long traffic jams as flames turned the skies orange.
'When it hit, people were really scrambling,' McLean said. 'There was not much of a warning.'
Many firefighters turned their focus from the flames to getting people out alive.
'Really we're in a life-saving mode right now in Redding,' said Jonathan Cox, battalion chief with Cal Fire. 'We're not fighting a fire. We're trying to move people out of the path of it because it is now deadly and it is now moving at speeds and in ways we have not seen before in this area.'
Some residents drove to hotels or the homes of family members in safer parts of California, while other evacuees poured into a shelter just outside of town.
A reporter with KRCR-TV in Redding choked up as she reported live updates about the fire before the station had to go off the air later.
A wildfire that roared with little warning into a Northern California city claimed two lives as thousands of people scrambled to escape before the walls of flames descended from forested hills onto their neighborhoods, officials said Friday.
Residents who gathered their belongings in haste described a chaotic and congested getaway as the embers blew up to a mile ahead of flames and the fire leaped across the wide Sacramento River and torched subdivisions in Redding, a city of 92,000 about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.
“I’ve never experienced something so terrifying in my life,” said Liz Williams, who loaded up two kids in her car and then found herself locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic with neighbors trying to retreat from Lake Redding Estates. She eventually jumped the curb onto the sidewalk and “booked it.”
“I didn’t know if the fire was just going to jump out behind a bush and grab me and suck me in,” Williams said. “I wanted out of here.”
The blaze leveled at least 125 homes, leaving neighborhoods smoldering and 37,000 people under evacuation orders.
The flames moved so fast that firefighters working in oven-like temperatures and bone-dry conditions had to drop efforts to battle the blaze at one point to help people escape.
The fire, which created at least two flaming tornadoes that toppled trees, shook firefighting equipment and busted truck windows, took “down everything in its path,” said Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state agency responsible for fighting wildfires.
Fire officials warned that the blaze would probably burn deeper into urban areas before there was any hope of containing it, though it either changed direction or was stopped before it could burn into the core of the city.
The fire was likely to regain strength later in the day when temperatures were forecast to spike around 110 degrees (43 Celsius) and winds were expected to kick up.
Redding sits at the northern end of the agricultural Central Valley, surrounded by a scenic landscape. Rivers channel abundant winter rainfall into massive reservoirs used for boating and fishing. The area’s stunning mountains, including snow-capped Mount Shasta, topping 14,000 feet (4,265 meters), are a playground for outdoor enthusiasts.
Lightning and even a lawn mower have sparked devastating fires in the forests that ring the peaks and lakes. The blaze that broke out Monday was caused by a mechanical issue involving a vehicle, officials said.
The fire rapidly expanded Thursday when erratic flames swept through the historic Gold Rush town of Shasta and nearby Keswick, then cast the Sacramento River in an orange glow as they jumped the banks into Redding.
Fire crews in Redding for a time abandoned any hope of containing the flames and instead focused on saving lives.
“We’re not fighting a fire,” said Jonathan Cox, battalion chief with Cal Fire. “We’re trying to move people out of the path of it because it is now deadly, and it is now moving at speeds and in ways we have not seen before in this area.”
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.
Elsewhere in the state, large fires continued to burn outside Yosemite National Park and in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles near Palm Springs.
No comments:
Post a Comment