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10:04 p.m. Saturday update:
REDDING, Calif. (AP) - A deadly Northern California wildfire has destroyed more than 500 buildings and is threatening thousands more as it rages into its fourth day.
The fire in the Redding area has left five people dead, including a 70-year-old woman and her two young great-grandchildren.
About 38,000 people remained under evacuation orders Saturday and are staying with relatives or in hotels or shelters.
Anna Noland, who was evacuated twice in three days, learned Friday that she had lost her home. She says it's hard to believe.
A vehicle problem ignited the fire Monday, but it wasn't until Thursday that the fire exploded and raced into communities west of Redding before entering city limits.
It was pushing southwest of Redding on Saturday, toward the tiny communities of Ono, Igo and Gas Point.
The fire grew slightly to 131 square miles (340 square kilometers) Saturday.
8:20 p.m. Saturday Update:
Authorities say a deadly wildfire that forced thousands of evacuations in Northern California has grown slightly and containment remained at just 5 percent.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials reported Saturday that the number of structures destroyed climbed to 536 from 500. About 5,000 structures remain threatened.
The fire in the Redding area grew to 131 square miles (340 square kilometers) from 127 square miles (327 square kilometers) earlier in the day.
The wildfire has badly damaged the small community of Keswick, swept through the historic Gold Rush town of Shasta and hit homes in Redding.
About 38,000 people remain under evacuation orders.
Two firefighters were killed and a family of three perished in the fire.
1:15 p.m. Saturday Update:
The aunt of two missing children has confirmed that the two siblings and their great-grandmother were killed in the Carr Wildfire.
Shelly Hoskison said Saturday that the two children and her grandmother died in the fire near Redding.
The fatalities bring the death toll to five since the massive blaze started burning Monday about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of the Oregon border.
The dead were identified as 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe and her great-grandchildren, 5-year-old James Roberts and 4-year-old Emily Roberts.
Family members had been desperately looking for them since flames leveled the home where they were stranded on Thursday.
Carr Fire Saturday afternoon briefing:
12:45 p.m. Saturday Update:
Police in a Northern California city say they have been unable to locate 14 people, including a 70-year-old woman and her young great-grandchildren, amid a raging wildfire.
Redding Police Sgt. Todd Cogle said he expects most of the 14 to be safe since their homes survived the Shasta County wildfire. He says some may be having communication issues.
Cogle said he could not comment on Melody Bledsoe and 5-year-old James Roberts and 4-year-old Emily Roberts, who remain missing. He said the Shasta County Sheriff's Office is investigating.
Police have surrounded the Bledsoe property with crime scene tape.
An investigator Saturday wouldn't say if any remains had been found. The wildfire that started Monday has displaced at least 37,000 people
10:00 a.m. Saturday:
The Carr Fire is now 80,906 acres and 5 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
Officials say a deadly blaze in Northern California almost doubled in size overnight, but is moving away from populated areas.
Chris Anthony, deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Saturday the so-called Carr Fire burning in Shasta County has scorched 125 square miles (320 square kilometers).
The blaze covered 75 square miles (194 square kilometers) Friday night.
Anthony says winds are fueling the fire but also pushing it away from Redding, a city of 90,000, and other populated areas. Thousands of people remain under evacuation orders, including the small towns of Ono and Igo.
The explosive wildfire in Northern California has killed two firefighters and destroyed 500 buildings. Another 5,000 buildings remain under threat.
8:05 a.m. Saturday:
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — In the small northern California community of Keswick, only a handful of homes remain.
The air is thick with the smell of smoke and chemicals. The rubble of people's lives still smoldered a day after the so-called Carr Fire moved through Shasta County like a freight train.
The flames so thoroughly ate up homes that it's difficult to tell how many once stood above the pile of ash and smoking rubble that remains.
Somewhere in there was the home of Shyla and Jason Campbell.
Jason Campbell, a firefighter, was six hours away battling a wildfire burning near Yosemite Valley when the Carr Fire moved in on his home and family.
Shyla Campbell, 32, said it was nearly 2 a.m. Thursday when she got an official alert to evacuate.
"It's huge flames, it's coming up the hill, and everyone's out and we're watching it, then it goes down, and everyone's like, 'Oh it's going out,' " she said. "And I'm like, 'No, it's going down the mountain and it's going to come back up the next ridge.' "
She was right.
The family spent the night at a hotel. When Jason Campbell returned from the blaze he was fighting on Friday, he found his own home had gone up in flames, along with an RV and a boat.
The Campbells' home of five years is among at least 500 structures that officials say were destroyed by the fire, which also swept through the historic Gold Rush town of Shasta and hit homes in Redding, a city of 92,000 about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.
"It's tough," Shyla Campbell said Friday from the city of Shasta Lake. "I just have to figure out where we're going to stay. We're just trying to stay away from the fire."
So are about 37,000 people who remain under evacuation orders Friday. Nearly 5,000 homes in the area were being threatened by the 75-square-mile (194-square-kilometer) blaze, which is just 5 percent contained.
Thousands of people scrambled to escape before the walls of flames descended from forested hills onto their neighborhoods Thursday.
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.
Redding police chief Roger Moore was among those who lost their homes, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Greg and Terri Hill evacuated their Redding home of 18 years Thursday night with little more than their medications, photo albums, clothes and firearms, assuming they'd be back in a few days.
But when they returned Friday, virtually nothing was left of their home but fine particles of ash.
The remains were smoldering so hot, they couldn't get too close to see if anything survived.
"It's pretty emotional," Terri Hill said. "I know it's just stuff. A lot of memories. But we'll make new memories and get new stuff. Everybody's safe."
The Hills fled before they were told to, knowing danger was afoot when the power went out and helicopters suddenly began flying low over their home.
Liz Williams 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've never experienced something so terrifying in my life," she said. "I didn't know if the fire was just going to jump out behind a bush and grab me and suck me in."
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 tornados 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.
Two firefighters were killed in the blaze, Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke and a bulldozer operator whose name wasn't immediately released. He was the second bulldozer operator killed in a California blaze in less than two weeks.
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.
8:15 p.m.:
Firefighters say 500 structures have been destroyed in a raging Northern California wildfire and another 5,000 are threatened.
Cal Fire released the updated figure Friday, though the number of homes burned in the so-called Carr Fire is expected to increase.
Earlier Friday, fire officials said 65 structures had been destroyed by the fast-moving blaze in Shasta County.
The blaze grew to 75 square miles (194 square kilometers) by Friday night. It began Monday with a mechanical failure of a vehicle. It grew completely out of control on Thursday, tearing through two small communities and reaching the city of Redding.
Tens of thousands of people fled the city in fear of their lives from the blaze, which has killed two firefighters.
6 p.m. UPDATE:
The police chief of the Northern California city hit hard by a fast-moving wildfire is among those whose homes went up in flames.
Redding Police Chief Roger Moore told the Los Angeles Times that he and two other police officers lost their homes in Shasta County's Carr Fire.
Moore estimates at least 100 homes were destroyed overnight Thursday as the flames jumped the Sacramento River and raced into the outskirts of Redding. More than 37,000 residents have been evacuated.
The city of 92,000 is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Oregon border.
Moore said the family saved valuables such as photos and documents, but his wife and children are anxious and sad.
5 p.m. UPDATE:
Gov. Brown sent a letter to President Trump Friday, requesting a Presidential Emergency Declaration for direct federal assistance with regards to the Carr Fire in Shasta County.
“Supplemental federal assistance is necessary to save lives and to protect property, public health and safety, and to lessen the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” Gov. Brown said in the letter.
3:30 p.m. UPDATE:
According to the Associated Press' count, at least 125 homes have been destroyed in the Carr Fire.
A fire official says winds fanning a deadly blaze in Northern California were so strong that trees were ripped from the ground, flew in the air and landed across the street.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Chad Carroll said Friday many of those trees landed on homes.
He says that winds were so extreme Thursday that embers traveled up to a mile ahead of the flames.
Carroll says the wildfire that started Monday and has killed two firefighters is mainly burning near the city of Redding, which has about 90,000 residents.
But he says extreme winds are expected again Friday afternoon and says people in the area should be ready to evacuate.
Mandatory evacuations were extended overnight to include the city of Shasta Lake, which has about 10,000 residents.
2:40 p.m. UPDATE:
Residents in Redding where several homes were destroyed say they had to scramble to escape the blaze.
Jim Chapin says he got home at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday and police were there telling people to evacuate the Lake Redding Estates neighborhood.
Chapin says his wife left, but he stayed behind to hose down the roof, gutters and fallen leaves.
He says that shortly afterward, the fire was burning trees behind neighbors' homes and ferocious winds whipped up branches, burning leaves, garbage-can lids, wood and other debris.
Chapin says the streets were so jammed with traffic that there was no way for firefighters to come in.
The 79-year-old returned to the neighborhood Friday and cried when he found his home still standing.
2 p.m. UPDATE:
The Redding Fire Department says Fire Inspector Jeremy Stoke died battling the Carr Fire.
11:20 a.m. UPDATE:
An official says more than 5,000 people have been evacuated and that authorities expect the Carr Fire to continue moving into urban areas.
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services spokesman Kelly Huston says they are coordinating bringing in aircrafts from the California National Guard to help fight the flames.
Officials say the extremely erratic wildfire in and around the city of Redding is growing rapidly amid scorching temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions. Temperatures are forecast to reach 110 (43 Celsius) Friday.
Huston says officials are moving emergency supplies including cots and food to four shelters set up in Shasta County.
He says the shelters are preparing for what could be a "longer-term" event.
10:15 a.m. UPDATE:
Gov. Jerry Brown urges residents to follow all evacuations concerning the Carr Fire. CAL FIRE officials said under 5,000 structures are at risk.
"This is the new normal for us in California," said CAL FIRE division chief Chris Anthony.
10 a.m. UPDATE:
Original story
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — An explosive wildfire that roared with little warning into a Northern California city claimed a second life and thousands more people abandoned their homes, some of them slipping out just ahead of the walls of flame, authorities said Friday.
In all, an estimated 37,000 people have fled from the so-called Carr Fire, which began Monday and tripled in size overnight Thursday amid scorching temperatures, low humidity and high winds. Fire officials warned that the blaze would probably burn deeper into urban areas before there was any hope of containing it.
A day earlier, the flames turned the sky orange while sweeping through the historic Gold Rush town of Shasta and nearby Keswick, then jumping the Sacramento River into Redding, a city of about 92,000 people and the largest in the region.
Steve Hobson was one of the last to leave Lake Redding Drive. A former urban and wild land firefighter three decades ago, he planned to stay behind to save his house. But the heat burned his skin, and the smoke made it hard to breathe. He could feel the fire sucking the air from the around him, whipping up swirling embers in a "fire tornado," he said.
Residents in the western part of Redding who had not been under evacuation orders were caught off guard and had to flee with little notice.
"When it hit, people were really scrambling," McLean said. "There was not much of a warning."
Many fire crews 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 Redding television station KRCR choked up as she reported live updates about the fire before the station had to go off the air later. Two news anchors told viewers that the building was being evacuated and urged residents to "be safe."
Journalists at the Record Searchlight newspaper tweeted about continuing to report on the fire without electricity in their newsroom, and a reporter at nearby KHSL television wrote on Twitter that the station's Redding reporters were "running home to gather their things."
Mike Mangas, a spokesman at Mercy Medical Center, said the hospital was evacuating five babies in its neonatal intensive care unit, which cares for premature newborns, and taking them to medical facilities outside of the area.
He said the hospital was preparing high-risk patients to be evacuated but there were no immediate plans to do so.
Late Thursday, crews found the body of the bulldozer operator who had been hired privately to clear vegetation in the blaze's path, McLean said. The fire burned over the operator and his equipment, making him the second bulldozer operator killed in a California blaze in less than two weeks.
Three firefighters and an unknown number of civilians had burns, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately 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 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."
The 45-square-mile (115-square-kilometer) fire that began Monday tripled in size overnight Thursday amid scorching temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions. It was sparked by a mechanical issue involving a vehicle, Cal Fire said.
Brett Gouvea, incident commander of the crews battling the fire, urged residents to pay close attention to the blaze.
"This fire is extremely dangerous and moving with no regard for what's in its path," he said.
Earlier in the day, with flames exploding around Whiskeytown Lake, people tried to save boats at a marina by untying them from moorings and pushing them to safety. But it wasn't swift enough to spare them all. Dozens of charred, twisted and melted boats were among the losses at Oak Bottom Marina.
"The boat docks down there — all the way out in the water — 30 to 40 boats caught fire when the fire laid down on top of them last night and burned those up," said fire Chief Mike Hebrard of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Wildfires throughout the state have burned through tinder-dry brush and forest, forced thousands to evacuate homes and caused campers to pack up their tents at the height of summer. Gov. Jerry Brown declared states of emergency for the three largest fires, which will authorize the state to rally resources to local governments.
A huge forest fire continued to grow outside Yosemite National Park. That blaze killed 36-year-old Braden Varney, a heavy equipment operator for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection whose bulldozer rolled over into a ravine July 14.
Hundreds of miles to the south, the Cranston Fire grew to 7.5 square miles (19 square kilometers) and about 3,000 residents remained under evacuation orders in Idyllwild and several neighboring communities. That fire, which destroyed five homes, is believed to have been sparked by arson.
