A Redding firefighter was the second responder killed since the blaze started Monday, officials said. A contract firefighter who was operating a bulldozer died Thursday. Several other people reportedly were injured with burns, including three Marin County firefighters.
The names of the two firefighters who were killed were not immediately released. Their deaths bring to three the number of firefighters who have died this month battling wildfires in the state. Braden Varney,who was operating a bulldozer, died while fighting the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park on July 14.
The Carr Fire has destroyed 65 structures and damaged 55 more since it broke out Monday, and nearly 5,000 homes are threatened, officials with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. There were reports that a dozen historic buildings had burned – wire service photographs showed flames consuming structures in Shasta Historic State Park, a ghost town west of Redding.
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The deadly Carr Fire claimed the life of a second firefighter and new evacuations were ordered early Friday in Shasta County as erratic winds fueled the aggressive inferno, which jumped the Sacramento River in Redding and prevented firefighters from getting close while thousands of residents fled for their lives.
A Redding firefighter was the second responder killed since the blaze started Monday, officials said. A contract firefighter who was operating a bulldozer died Thursday. Several other people reportedly were injured with burns, including three Marin County firefighters.
The names of the two firefighters who were killed were not immediately released. Their deaths bring to three the number of firefighters who have died this month battling wildfires in the state. Braden Varney, who was operating a bulldozer, died while fighting the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park on July 14.
The Carr Fire has destroyed 65 structures and damaged 55 more since it broke out Monday, and nearly 5,000 homes are threatened, officials with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. There were reports that a dozen historic buildings had burned — wire service photographs showed flames consuming structures in Shasta Historic State Park, a ghost town west of Redding.
Thousands of people in Redding and outlying areas were ordered to leave as the flames made what Brett Gouvea, Cal Fire’s unified incident commander chief, called “a significant push into the northwestern portion” of the city late Thursday.
“We ask everyone to heed evacuation orders and leave promptly,” Gouvea said. “This fire is extremely dangerous and moving with no regard for what’s in its path.”
Cal Fire was blunt: It told residents in evacuation areas to “get out now.”
“These firefighters, they’re going for the attack and then they get beat back up by the erratic fire,” Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said. “It’s just intense.”
The Carr Fire is believed to have been caused by a vehicle mechanical failure Monday near Whiskeytown, about 30 miles west of Redding. Winds pushed it across the Sacramento River late Thursday and into Redding, a city of 90,000 at the northern end of the Central Valley.
The blaze — one of more than a dozen wildfires in California — has been stoked all week by triple-digit temperatures. As of Friday morning, the fire had burned 44,450 acres and was 3 percent contained.
The trend of hot weather, low humidity and gusty winds will continue through the weekend, said Eric Gurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
“The fire has grown quite a bit in the night,” Gurth said. “So we might be seeing some considerable fire growth if that cycle continues, which it looks like it will.”
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Temperatures on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are expected to be 110 degrees with humidity down to 10 percent. Northwest wind gusts up to 25 mph are expected Friday evening in the canyons near the fire, he said.
Temperatures in the high 70s early Friday and greater humidity allowed firefighters to finally go into the blaze to get some work done, officials said.
However, McLean warned, “there was aggressive fire behavior still ongoing in certain parts of the fire.”
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Thursday afternoon for Shasta County to mobilize the state’s Office of Emergency Services and other agencies to provide aid.
An evacuation center was available at Shasta College and Weaverville Elementary School. Among those who had to flee were staffers at KRCR-TV in Redding, where news anchors were in the middle of a live broadcast when they announced they were being ordered out.
“We are going to leave the station because it is now unsafe to be here,” a station news anchor said on the air.
Driving through Shasta County, McLean said he saw large and small trees that had been ripped out of the ground and fallen onto homes. One gust blew out the windows of a Cal Fire pickup truck, he added.
“That tells me there was a heck of a lot of erratic winds,” McLean said. “That’s what these firefighters are having to deal with.”
In addition to the firefighters who were killed, the blaze has injured several firefighters and civilians, officials said. Three firefighters were taken to hospitals with burn injuries, McLean said.
There are 1,748 fire personnel responding to the Carr Fire, including 110 engines, 34 water tenders, 10 helicopters, 51 hand crews and 22 bulldozers.