INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
California wildfire is the most destructive of all wildfire burning across United States
(Reuters)Redding, California: Two children and their great-grandmother were among the five killed in a Northern California wildfire as fire
crews battled on to quell flames that have destroyed entire neighborhoods.More than 38,000 people remained under evacuation orders on Sunday
in and around the city of Redding, about 160 miles (257 km) north of the state capital Sacramento, from a blaze that has destroyed more than
500 buildings and continued to rage largely unchecked into a seventh day.The Carr Fire, the deadliest and most destructive of nearly 90
wildfires burning from Texas to Oregon, has charred 89,194 acres (36,095 hectares) of drought-parched vegetation since erupting last
Monday.More than 5,012 structures were threatened by the fire, officials said
The flames destroyed 517 structures and damaged 135.The weather on Sunday is expected to offer no relief for firefighters as it will hit
more than 100 Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) with low humidity and gusty winds, the National Weather Service said.An army of some 3,500
firefighting personnel and a squadron of 17 water-dropping helicopters had managed to carve buffer lines around just 5 percent of the fire's
perimeter as of Sunday.Fire officials say the erratic behavior of the blaze, stoked by high winds and triple-digit temperatures, has
complicated efforts to contain the conflagration.President Donald Trump on Saturday declared the fire an emergency, authorizing federal
funds for disaster relief efforts.At the height of its fury on Thursday night, the fire was whipped into a storm-like frenzy by gale-force
winds that drove flames across the Sacramento River into the western end of Redding, as thousands of residents fled for their lives in a
chaotic evacuation.The nearby town of Keswick, with a population of about 450, was reduced to cinders, and two firefighters were killed.On
Saturday, Redding police said they were searching for 17 people still unaccounted for two days afterward.Fire- ravaged homeRedding Police
Sergeant Todd Cogle confirmed that the three bodies discovered at a fire-ravaged home on the outskirts of Redding were two children and
their great-grandmother.Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said they had not yet been positively identified but were believed to be victims
identified by relatives on Facebook and in news media reports as James Roberts, 5, his sister Emily, 4, and Melody Bledsoe, 70.Bledsoe's
grandaughter, Amanda Woodley, said on Facebook that the elderly woman desperately put a wet blanket over the children as their home
burned."Grandma did everything she could to save them she was hovered over them both with a wet blanket," Woodley said in a Facebook
post.The children's mother, Sherry Bledsoe, was quoted by the Sacramento Bee as saying "My kids are deceased, that's all I can
say."According to the newspaper, Melody Bledsoe's husband, Ed Bledsoe, wept as he recalled trying to get back to the family's house after he
had left to run an errand on Thursday, only to learn that the fire was closing in on them
He told the newspaper that he spoke to the children on the phone as he raced in vain to return in time to save them.A Go Fund Me effort
launched overnight to help Ed Bledsoe had raised almost half its $30,000 goal by midday Sunday
It said the elderly couple had been caring for the great grandchildren for years in their rental home.So far this year, wildfires have
scorched almost 4.3 million acres (1.7 million hectares) across the country, less than last year but still more than the 3.7 million-acre
(1.5 million-hectare) average for the same period over the last decade
California has been particularly hard hit with several fierce blazes menacing large populated areas.One of those, the Cranston fire,
prompted a rare closure of much of Yosemite National Park last week, while another forced mass evacuations from the mountain resort
community of Idyllwild, east of Los Angeles.© Thomson Reuters 2018(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
