California fires: two dead and nine missing as residents evacuate | American News



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Firefighters fighting a huge fire in northern California prevented it from doing more damage in the town of Redding, but three small communities were in danger on Saturday as the flames closed and the inhabitants the count of 500 destroyed structures was sure to get up. About 37,000 people were under evacuation orders, 5,000 houses were threatened and the fire was only 5%.

Those who died were the Redding Fire Inspector, Jeremy Stoke, and a bulldozer operator whose name was not published immediately, the second bulldozer operator to die in California in two weeks. One hospital in Redding reported treating eight people, including three firefighters

. Police said nine people, including a woman and her two great-great-grandchildren, had disappeared. The woman's husband, Ed Bledsoe, told a TV channel that he had left them home to run a race on Thursday night.

"He called and said:" Grandpa, you have to come, the fire is coming home … "Bledsoe said of a phone call that he had with his great-great-grandson, adding, "I do not see how I can go on without them."

The fire increased by about 35% at night to 127 square miles and pushed south-west of Redding to Ono, Igo and Gas Point. The winds that helped firefighters keep the flames in more populated areas have however propelled them to a frightening pace.

"We do not pause with the weather," said Chris Anthony, a Cal Fire spokesperson, # 39; agency. responsible for fighting forest fires. "It continues to be really hot, really dry and we continue to have these winds. This fire becomes so big and there are so many different parts. "

Carr's so-called fire was lit Monday by a vehicle.It exploded on Thursday night, leaping the Sacramento River and growing in Redding, about 250 miles north of San Francisco and the largest city in the area. with approximately 92,000 inhabitants

Elsewhere in California, large fires burned outside Yosemite National Park, the San Jacinto Mountains in eastern Los Angeles near Palm Springs. Nationwide, 89 large active fires had consumed nearly 930,000 acres in 14 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. "By now this year, nearly 37,000 fires have burned more than $ 4.25 million.

This is well above average for the same period in the last 10 years, but 5.27 million acres in the first seven months of 2017 According to data from the National Interagency Fire Center, California ac its worst start to the fire season in a decade, with 289,727 acres burned Friday morning.

California Governor Jerry Brown has asked for federal emergency assistance to prevent disaster, "providing supplies and water for evacuated residents and care for horses and women. Cattle rescued from ranches and farms

Carr's fire destroyed almost everything in Keswick, a hamlet just west of Redding.One of the lost houses belonged to Shyla and Jason Campbell. firefighter, was six hours away, fighting a forest fire near the Yosemite Valley, when Carr's fire arrived at a devastating speed





<img class = "gu-image" itemprop = "contentUrl" alt = "Burnt properties near the Lake Keswick Estates area. 19659016] Properties burned near the Lake Keswick Estates area during Carr's fire at Redding on Friday. Photography: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images

"It's big flames, it goes up on the hill, and everybody's out and we look at it, then it goes down, and everybody says, 'Oh that's coming out,'" said Shyla, 32. " And me "" No, it goes down the mountain and it goes up the next ridge. "

She was right The family spent the night in a hotel.When Jason returned on Friday, he discovered that their house of five was missing, with a RV and a boat.

Thousands of people rushed to escape the embers in flight before flaming walls descended from the wooded hills to their quarters on Thursday.Two burning tornadoes overturned trees, shaken fire-fighting equipment and broken truck windows, "all in its path," said Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire

-like the temperatures had to lower efforts to fight the fire and help people escape.

Residents who hastily collected business described a chaotic and congested leak as sparks flew and that the fe He was jumping across the broad Sacramento River, setting fire to the subdivisions of Redding. Redding's chief of police, Roger Moore, was among those who lost their homes.

Greg and Terri Hill evacuated their 18-year-old home on Thursday night with little more than drugs, photo albums, clothes and guns, assuming they would be back home in a few days. When they returned on Friday, there was almost nothing left of ash. It was so hot that they could not walk to see if anything was surviving.

"It's quite moving," Terri Hill said. "I know it's just stuff, a lot of memories, but we're going to make new memories and get new things, everyone is safe."

The Hills fled before They were told, knowing that the danger was running out and that the helicopters were starting to fly at low altitude.

Liz Williams took two children in her car and found herself stranded in an unrestrained traffic with neighbors trying to flee Lake Redding Estates.

"I've never experienced something so terrifying of my life" she says. "I did not know if the fire was just going to jump behind a bush and catch and suck me. "

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