Carr fire sweeps into Redding; 1 dead, homes destroyed

REDDING - The Carr fire in Shasta County erupted Thursday night into a conflagration that swept over the Sacramento River and into Redding, killing one person and sending residents fleeing for their lives as flames spread into neighborhoods of rolling hills in the western part of the city.

“The fire has burned into the west side of Redding,” Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said late Thursday. “Structures are burning.”

“The fire is moving so fast that law enforcement is doing evacuations as fast as we can. There have been some injuries to civilians and firefighters.”

Cal Fire said a private bulldozer operator had been killed during the blaze but gave no other details late Thursday. The death was the second this month reported as firefighters attacked blazes the length of California.

The Associated Press reported three firefighters also had been injured.

Cal Fire emphasized the blaze was moving quickly and had burned into neighborhoods around ?9 p.m. Thursday after two days of fierce fire activity in the Whiskeytown area west of Redding.

“It’s way too dynamic and burning quickly,” McLean said of the blaze, which had tripled in size in two days to more than 28,000 acres as of Thursday afternoon.

The fire started Monday afternoon after a vehicle malfunction, Cal Fire said, and quickly began to devour tinder-dry grass and brush, consuming more than 28,000 acres before jumping the Sacramento River into the city limits.

The approaching fire set off a series of emergency evacuations, including at KRCR-TV, which announced during a live broadcast workers were being forced from their station near the Sundial Bridge shortly before 10:30 p.m.

“Right now we’re being evacuated,” anchor Allison Woods said. “That’s why we are kind of closing out right now. We are going to leave the station because it is now unsafe to be here.”

More than 1,700 firefighters were battling the blaze Thursday afternoon when it suddenly blew up and swept toward the city.

“Right now they’re doing what they can; they’re trying to make a stand where they can, if possible,” McLean said of firefighters. “It’s extreme. It’s blowing up off and on again.

“It crossed the Sacramento River north of Redding from the reports we got. It’s within the city limits of Redding and it’s in an area of rolling hills, so it’s not house-to-house neighborhoods but it’s burning into Redding and prompting immediate and urgent evacuations.”

The Redding Record-Searchlight, citing dispatchers, reported that Cal Fire had summoned the California National Guard for help.

Emergency personnel reported on social media that they are stopping structure and containment efforts in north Redding in order to focus on safely evacuating all citizens.

A Cal Fire spokesman could only confirm portions of west Redding were under evacuation.

The Vibra Hospital in west Redding was among the sites being evacuated, according to the Record-Searchlight.

The facility provides long-term, specialized care along with rehabilitation services.

An evacuation center at Shasta High School was itself evacuated. Cal Fire said the shelter has been relocated to Shasta College.

At 9 p.m., fire personnel requested that Redding Electric Utility shut off power to residents of North Redding. Reports on KRCR-TV, the ABC affiliate in Redding, confirmed parts of the city were without power in an effort to prevent electrical equipment from sparking more fires.

Emergency medical vehicles were stretched thin, and seven calls were backlogged at 9:45 p.m. Thursday, according to scanner traffic from the Shasta County Cal Fire scanner.

“We’re just a little extended, gridlock on Ashby,” an emergency responder said when asked what their unit’s response time was.

A spot fire was reported behind a Walmart near Highway 44, which is located in the east area of Redding, scanner traffic said. Some firefighters were working to save structures in east Redding.

Area residents took to social media to give a glimpse of their feelings of fear as the flames approached the city.

One Twitter user tweeted that her sister and her family had to evacuate because of the fire, which was just 5 miles from their home and destroyed the neighborhood next to theirs.

“I’m scared and feel completely out of control - not a thing I can do,” she said.

Another tweeted that evacuations were causing Redding to look “like a zombie outbreak right now.”

A new “fully engulfed” structure fire broke out around 10:07 p.m. in east Redding, according to scanner traffic.

Multiple units from other incidents left their posts to assist with fire suppression efforts, as it is believed to be separate from the Carr fire.

Social media reports said that the area of Keswick Dam and Quartz Hill northwest of the city is fully engulfed in flames, with multiple homes and structures burning and many people trapped and unable to drive out of the area because of congestion.