Posted on 07/28/2018 5:44:47 PM PDT by Mariner
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — The death count from a rapidly growing Northern California wildfire rose to five Saturday after two young children and their great-grandmother who had been unaccounted for were confirmed dead.
“My babies are dead,” Sherry Bledsoe said through tears after she and family members met with Shasta County sheriff’s deputies.
Bledsoe’s two children, James Roberts, 5, and Emily Roberts, 4, were stranded with her grandmother Melody Bledsoe, 70, when walls of flames swept through the family’s rural property Thursday on the outskirts of Redding.
The three were among more than a dozen people reported missing after the furious wind-driven blaze took residents by surprise and leveled several neighborhoods.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said he expects to find several of those people alive and just out of touch with loved ones. Officers have gone to homes of several people reported missing and found cars gone — a strong indication they fled.
The fire sparked Monday by a vehicle in forested hills grew to 127 square miles (328 square kilometers). It pushed southwest of Redding, the largest city in the region, toward the tiny communities of Ono, Igo and Gas Point, where scorching heat, winds and bone-dry conditions complicated firefighting efforts.
It’s now the largest fire burning in California. The winds that aided firefighters in keeping the flames from more populated areas were propelling at a frightening rate in unpredictable directions.
“I don’t know why it’s doing what it’s doing,” Cal Fire Chief Steve Crawford said. “It’s burning in every direction all at the same time. ... It’s burning as if it’s got strong wind on it even when there’s no wind.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Dozens still missing.
10's of millions in damage to real property.
Massive destruction of wild habitat.
And there's dozens on this site that would deny federal assets to this disaster.
Simply disgraceful.
125 square miles burned.
From 6000 to 40000 acres the first night. To 80000 last night. What will tonight bring?
I cannot even imagine the terror that woman must have felt when she realized that she was trapped in the fire with those dear little children.
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Thankfully President Trump does not listen to them. That area of California is Trump country, but help should be sent regardless.
“trapped in the fire with those dear little children.”
A wall of fire over 100ft tall, traveling over 40mph. Temps over 1000 deg.
There’s not many options to escape that.
Hi Jim
Did you drop this out of news and frontpage? Or, was it one of your admins?
It seems frontpage is warranted considering the scale of the disaster.
God,I cannot even imagine it——horrifying.
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I cannot even IMAGINE how frightening that would be.
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I just talked to a buddy of mine that lives on the bald hills up out of Orick (coastal northern Humboldt) and he could see the plume from his porch.
Of course President Trump will give financial aid. That IDIOT Governor Brown has certainly had enough disasters under his years. The Oroville Dam, any number of fires caused at least in part by STUPID fire regulations promoted by Ivory Tower tree fools, and of course the bullet train. But why stop there ...?
Isn’t Humboldt home to the tallest and oldest trees on the planet? I pray that area is spared.
Yea his property borders the Redwood National Park. Probably 70 miles from Redding as the crow flies.
“Isn’t Humboldt home to the tallest and oldest trees on the planet? “
Tallest, not oldest. Coastal Redwoods get a little over 300ft tall.
The oldest are the Sequoias. They are in the central to southern Sierras, hundreds of miles away.
Coastal redwoods live only about 2,000 years, the Sequoias live to 28 or 29 hundred years and get 40ft in diameter at the base.
Sequoias can survive fire. Their bark is up to 3ft thick and behaves like asbestos.
Coastal Redwoods light up very, very hot.
“Of course President Trump will give financial aid.”
Planes, heavy equipment and men are needed right now.
Money is secondary.
All state resources are in use fighting fires throughout the state. At least a dozen, and more emerging every few hours.
Actually the Bristlecone Pine trees of the White Mountains on the California/Nevada border, about 10 miles east of me, are the old living trees in the World. They surpass the Sequoias in age by several thousand years. Some, still alive, are nearly 6,000 years old.
For comparison, the Thomas fire (Dec. 2017 - Jan. 2018), the worst in modern CA history, burned 281,893 acres, the first 115,000 acres in the 1st 3 days. So... In terms of size and rate of spread, the Carr fire is so far a little behind - but that’s still awfully bad!
The loss of lives is just heart wrenching.
Very tragic. :(
This one is just getting warmed up.
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