Carr Fire Kills 2 in Northern California as Evacuations Are Ordered

CORNING, Calif. – A rapidly expanding wildfire in Northern California on Friday, killing two people, burning dozens of buildings and prompting emergency officials to an urgent plea for people in Redding and surrounding areas to evacuate immediately

Dry conditions and triple-digit temperatures added fuel to the fast-moving blaze, known as the Carr Fire, as it marched eastward, swept over the Sacramento River and pushed into the outskirts of Redding, the largest city in the region. A firefighter with the Redding Fire Department and a privately hired bulldozer operator, who was helping fight the blaze, were killed, the authorities said. Several firefighters and civilians have also suffered injuries. "

" This fire is extremely dangerous and does not look for what's in its path, "said Bret Gouvea, the incident commander for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Early Friday, Summit and Shasta Lake, which are about seven miles northwest of Redding and more than 10,000 residents combined. People in areas near the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River were also told to evacuate.

From Thursday night to Friday morning, the Carr Fire raged out of control and scorched an additional 16,000 acres, bringing the total area burned to more than 44,000 acres. Firefighters struggled to contain its growth; The blaze was 3 percent contained on Friday, down from 6 percent on Thursday night.

The weather was not expected to be exposed to the weather or to the National Weather Service. The high temperature in Redding was expected to hit 110 on Friday and the next two days. Wind gusts could reach 25 miles an hour in areas where the fire continues to rage.

Fire officials said it was too early to account for the total damage caused by the Carr Fire, but said that at least another 55 damaged. Nearly 5,000 structures in it's path were

The Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center in Redding In this case, it was recommended that the patient be treated. Dignity Health had also treated eight patients, including three firefighters, with injuries related to the wildfire. None of the injuries were serious, a spokesman hospital said .

Images posted on social media showed the night sky aglow with orange and red flames as the explosive fire tore through the hills and canyons west of Redding. Redding, a city of 92,000 people about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.

In the town of Corning, about an hour 's drive south of Redding, the air was shrouded in a thick haze but free from thick ashfalls. The Rolling Hills Casino, for the second time in a year, offered shelter to evacuees, while its equestrian center took in horses from nearby ranches. In a ballroom off the main casino floor, where an unusually small crowd played slot machines with names like Jackpot Inferno, evacuees slept, spoke to family members on cellphones and watched news updates on a big-screen television.

Tracy Boatman evacuated to the casino with his wife, Mary Jo, from a parking lot near Redding on Thursday night by an automated evacuation call from local authorities.

He described driving along the way of traffic to choked roads to get to Interstate 5, which was moving slowly as a resident of Redding to escape the approaching danger. 19659002] "Mr. Boatman said."

Steve Neely, general manager of the casino, said that dealing with the threat of wildfires had become a fact of life in the arid West

"Mr. Neely said."

At 10:30 pm Thursday, news anchor at KRCR-TV, an ABC-affiliated television station in Redding, abruptly announced that was under the evacuation orders.

"Right now we are being evacuated and that's why we're kind of closing out right now," said the anchor, Allison Woods. "

The station was streaming its newscast on Twitter on Twitter.

The fire was started Monday by" mechanical failure of a vehicle "in the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, the California fire protection agency, also known as Cal Fire, said in a report, without elaborating.

[ Read more about why experts are saying this summer's destructive wildfire season is "the new normal." ]

"This fire is just extremely dynamic," Mr. McLean said . "Tubbs Fire, wind-driven blazes that ravaged Sonoma and Napa Counties, killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,500 structures, making it the Most destructive wildfire in California history.

A Wednesday, September 26, 2009 (Clearwisdom.net) Michelle Hickok, whose husband works for the Red Bluff Fire Department, said the state's frequent fires are a strain on firefighting families. Notable the two deaths of the Carr Fire, she said the fire of her husband might have been hurt in that way, and that the fire had exacerbated it.