As the American Inferno continues in 2018, about 90 wildfires from Texas to Oregon, as deadly Carr Fire causes tens of thousands of people to be evacuated to escape hell on Earth.
Five people are now known to be dead, two of them children with 17 missing and tens of thousands evacuated as the “Carr Fire” destroys 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) of land an area three times bigger than the city of San Francisco.
The Carr Fire is being fed by strong winds and only 5% of the blaze is contained. The blaze was one of about a dozen major wildfires burning across California.
The fires which started Thursday driven by gale-force winds exploded into a firestorm that leapt the Sacramento River and engulfed whole neighborhoods in and around Redding, sending thousands of people fleeing for their lives in a chaotic evacuation.
A private bulldozer operator on the fire line and a Redding firefighter were killed in the conflagration. The nearby town of Keswick, with a population of about 450, was reduced to ash.
Some 500 structures were destroyed, and 38,000 people remained under evacuation orders as of this weekend.
Redding police said they were trying to locate 17 people reported missing by relatives or friends since Thursday night. Among them were the three victims whose bodies officials said were found at an incinerated home on the outskirts of Redding.
Police Sergeant Todd Cogle said the number of those unaccounted for had fluctuated during the past two days – from as many as 20 to as few as 12 – as some who were reported missing turned up safe and others were added to the list.
The Big Wobble.org / Crickey Conservation Society 2018.
