California wildfires: Death toll rises as ‘firenado’ hits

The death toll is rising as monster wildfires — including one so powerful it erupted into the sky — tear through bone-dry US state.

A large pyrocumulus cloud (or cloud of fire) explodes outward during the Carr fire near Redding, California.

Thousands of dazed evacuees struggled to keep their emotions in check while trying to take care of themselves and their pets as a deadly wildfire in Northern California raged into its fourth day.

Anna Noland, 49, was evacuated twice in three days before learning through video footage that the house she last saw under dark and windy skies had burned. She expected to spend Saturday night at a shelter at Simpson College in Redding while she searches for another place to live.

“I think I’m still in shock,” Noland said. “It’s just unbelievable knowing you don’t have a house to go back to.” Noland is among the 38,000 people evacuated after the Carr Fire roared into the outskirts of Redding in Shasta County, leaving five people dead, including two firefighters, a woman and her two great-grandchildren, ages 4 and 5.

“My babies are dead,” Sherry Bledsoe said through tears after she and family members met with Shasta County sheriff’s deputies.

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.

Devastation in the Lake Keswick Estates area during the Carr fire in Redding.

On Saturday, 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. The fire, which grew slightly Saturday to 340 square kilometre, is the largest fire burning in California. Nearly 5,000 structures were threatened and the fire was just 5 per cent contained.

The latest tally of 536 destroyed structures was up from 500 earlier in the day, and sure to rise. A count by The Associated Press found at least 300 of those structures were homes.

The largest of the fires menacing the state has nearly doubled in size, while another pushed thousands of people to flee and a third forced the partial closure of the popular Yosemite National Park.

A huge column of smoke rotated rapidly above the massive Carr Fire with such strength it looked like a tornado in a fire whirl sometimes dubbed a “firenado.”

A Cal Fire firefighter waters down a back burn on Cloverdale Rd., near the town of Igo.

A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop as the sun sets over a ridge burning near Redding.

In declaring an emergency in California, President Donald Trump “ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a wildfire beginning on July 23,” the White House said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency “is authorised to identify, mobilise and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency,” it said.

The Carr Fire in northern California — which began on July 23 — has consumed 80,906 acres (32,749 hectares), up from 48,312 on Friday, according to Cal Fire, the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“Winds, high temperatures and dry vegetation still have the potential to fuel fire growth. Fire spread has been active in all directions and has made significant runs,” Cal Fire said.

Governor Jerry Brown on Friday asked for federal assistance “to save lives and to protect property,” his office said in a statement.

Homes razed by the deadly Carr Fire in the Lake Keswick Estates area of Redding.

Matt Smith talks about how he fought an advancing wildfire and saved his home in Redding.

THOUSANDS EVACUATED

He asked for help, including military aircraft, shelter supplies and water for 30,000 evacuated residents in Shasta County, in north-central California, where the Carr Fire has grown “uncontrollably,” the statement said.

Brown declared a state of emergency in Shasta and ordered National Guard forces to assist the 3,400 fire personnel already trying to contain the Carr Fire, which has destroyed 500 structures.

More than 1,300 firefighters are battling the fast-moving Cranston Fire, which began on Wednesday and forced the evacuation of about 7,000 people, the US Forest Service said.

It added that the hazards created by Cranston and another fire have caused the temporary closure of all US Forest Service lands within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.

Deer graze along a road covered in fire retardant as the Carr Fire burns.

Smoke rises from the Carr Fire as it burns along highway 299.

A 32-year-old man has been arrested and charged with 15 arson counts, including for the Cranston Fire.

The Ferguson Fire has encroached upon the Yosemite National Park in central California, forcing the partial closure of the popular attraction.

“Firefighters worked through the night extending and strengthening containment lines, while also monitoring a small fire that jumped a line Friday afternoon,” according to InciWeb, the Forestry Service’s incident information website.

Last year was the worst on record for wildfire devastation in California, with more than 40 deaths and around 9,000 structures destroyed, following fires that ravaged the Napa and Sonoma wine regions.

Wade Brilz (2nd from R) looks at his burned home.

— AP