REDDING, Calif. – A 70-year-old woman and her two grandchildren – Grandchildren died in a rural country house leveled by a forest fire ravaging the north from California, confirmed the woman's family on Saturday. Deaths brought the death toll to five in the six-day Carr Fire.

The death of Melody Bledsoe and her great-grandchildren, James Roberts and Emily Roberts, age 4, was confirmed by the children's mother, Sherry Bledsoe, and the County Sheriff's Office. Shasta.

"My babies are dead," Sherry Bledsoe said through her tears after being informed of the deaths. Friends and other family members comforted the mother while she was crying outside the sheriff's office.

The family members desperately searched for the three since the house had been consumed by the fire, causing the roof to collapse and preventing firefighters from entering the house.

Bledsoe's husband was stocking up at the store when his great-grandson called him and said he had to go home because the fire was approaching.

Two firefighters were also killed while fighting the uncontrolled fire: Jeremy Stoke, a fire inspector for the Redding Fire Department, and Don Ray Smith, 81, a private bulldozer operator.

The Carr Fire, driven by howling winds, rose from about 35 percent overnight to 127 square miles as its fiery tentacles spread to the communities of Ono, Igo and Gas Point. Saturday afternoon, he destroyed 500 buildings.

A number of houses in the Lake Kenswick Estates subdivision were completely razed, with the fire quickly taking over. All that remained was a trail of ash, brick and metal, with some charred remains of pools, sheds and the hull of what were vehicles.

About 37,000 people are under evacuation orders, 5,000 are threatened and only 5% are locked up.

In Happy Valley, residents rushed to load their belongings into vehicles, including pets and livestock.

The Dwinell family, who have lived in the area since the 1940s, loaded a recreational vehicle with a few belongings and their dog. Earnie Dwinell Jr. looked up as he was helping his parents pack the RV. It's "bad, just bad," said the 61-year-old.

"We have been here all our life, and this is not normal," he said about the fire. "Well, I guess it's normal now."

Tornado winds in northern California temporarily helped firefighters on Saturday by keeping them from more populated areas, but also triggered the flames at a frightening pace in communities dotting the southwest of Redding, forcing chaotic evacuations overnight. back to Redding, with a population of about 92,000.

"We are not taking a break with the weather," said Chris Anthony, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state's fire-fighting agency. forest. "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. "

For communities in the southwest of the city, the message from the Igo Ono Fire Department was bluntly:" It is time to go now. "

As the fire crackled on Igo, an unincorporated community of about 600 people, law enforcement agencies posted the warning on Facebook and made the door – to – door gate to urge the locals to go away. ]

Igo, and nearby Ono and Gaspoint were just three other communities taken on the ravenous wild fire path in northern California that destroyed 500 structures The Carr fire was lit Monday by a vehicle and exploded Thursday night, jumped the Sacramento River and pushed into Redding, about 250 miles north of San Francisco. [19] 659008] What officials called a possible tornado made matters worse, uprooting trees and damaging roads as teams worked to control the deadly fire.

Justin Montes, of Redding Lake, said he was the last to leave his neighborhood.

He said that he was running from his house to his car in very strong winds that caused trees and branches to fall scattered on the courtyard next door.

It was like a fire storm – winds ripping. I saw sparks flying and throwing garbage cans. My fence was torn apart, "said Montes." I thought my house was a toast. " For more information: California's longer, hotter summers cause destructive fires

More: ] Where is Redding?

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