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REDDING, Calif. – Ed Bledsoe left home in Redding, California on Thursday to shop while his wife Melody and their two great-grandchildren stayed home. Less than an hour later his wife called.
"She said," You have to go home now, the fire is right next to our house, "Bledsoe told Public Capital Radio
. Grandchildren James Roberts, age 5, and Emily Roberts, age 4, remained inside as the fire approached, said Saturday Donald Kewley, the boyfriend of one of the Bledsoes' granddaughters
said, Mr. Bledsoe heard them "start to panic and scream."
The kids "were screaming for their lives," said Jason Decker, the boyfriend of the school. another granddaughter of Bledsoes. "The children said," Daddy, daddy, come home, the fire is at the back door. "
Then the line is dead
Bledsoe came home but the smoke was so strong and the flames so high that he could not come back, said Mr. Kewley.
On Saturday, the family learned from the coroner's office that they were mo Mr Decker said at a press conference on Saturday, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said the three men had been trapped in the house after the walls and roof were seized. collapsed during the fire
. "No body was found," he said. "We are still working with fire department staff to cool the site so that we have access to our own staff."
Ms. Bledsoe and the two children were the latest victims reported in a fire that has already killed two firefighters and left more than a dozen missing, officials said.
like the Carr Fire, had burned more than 80,000 acres, compared with more than 40,000 on Friday. It destroyed 500 structures and forced evacuations of about 39,000 people, according to authorities.
President Trump signed Saturday an emergency declaration for California and authorized federal aid for disaster relief
. CalFire's Shasta-Trinity Unit described the dire conditions that firefighters were trying to save. "The fire ran with such ferocity," he said. "There were winds, winds of 70 miles per hour, tornadolike winds."
Mr. Kewley, who lives about two miles from the Bledsoes River near the Sacramento River in Redding, about 160 miles north of Sacramento, said the family had followed the fire but did not receive it. Evacuation orders Thursday
"Eight hours have passed and everything exploded, and everything was on fire," he said, adding that the one-kilometer subdivisions were "lit" .
In the neighborhood of Redding where Mrs. Bledsoe and the two children died, the smoking rubble of the cremated houses lined the streets, sometimes juxtaposed with houses that remained intact or suffered only minor damage. 19659002] Falling power lines snaked through the streets, which were largely empty with the exception of police and fire personnel who monitored the damage and repairs done by public service employees.
The canyons and plains, spoke of the combustibility of landscapes in this part of northern California, where communities are often built in what the experts call the wildland-urban interface.
Streets and cul-de-sacs filled with drought-stressed oaks, manzanita and scrub, all of which provide powerful fuels when they are inflamed.
As a result of the fire, many of these areas were reduced to blackened soil and spectral remains of burned trees. the appearance of a war zone.
The signs of life persisted, however. In a front yard just across from an obliterated residence, hummingbirds fed from a feeder and buzzing wasps were heard amid the roar of fire trucks that were moving in the area.
the flames had encroached. At one house, largely spared from the fire, a water hose had been deployed, its nozzle mounted on a pole and aimed at a burnt fence.
Down the street, however, was the sign of a battle with a more gloomy end. : a pile of photographs and cartridges piled on the sidewalk, and behind her, a ruined house
Many evacuated neighborhood residents sought to return home on Saturday to determine if they had survived.
They often encountered checkpoints with police and members of the National Guard, who delivered frustrating news that they should wait for the fire hazards to be passed.
Christine Shields, 61, was surveying an intersection in northwestern Redding, pleading with officers to allow her to retrieve a trailer filled with items from her dead mother's home.
She struggled to describe the intensity of the fire while she was charging her mother's property. 19659002] "The whole city is in flames and things are falling from the sky," said Shields.
The look of the area reminded her of a horror or sci-fi movie that she had seen, but the ferocity The fire was so disorienting that she could not remember her title.
"I want to call it" Silent Night, "but that's not it," she said. "It's scary."
Sarah Mervosh contributed to the report.
Follow Christina Caron on Twitter: @cdcaron .
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