A Cal Fire firefighter mops up hot spots after the Carr Fire moved through the area on Saturday in Redding, Calif. The fire is 5 percent contained. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A Cal Fire firefighter mops up hot spots after the Carr Fire moved through the area on Saturday in Redding, Calif. The fire is 5 percent contained.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Firefighters continue to battle a massive wildfire in Northern California that’s displaced at least 37,000 people since it started Monday.
After ripping through the Shasta County city of Redding on Friday, the fire’s span tripled overnight, scorching 80,906 acres and is now 5 percent contained, according to numbers released on Saturday by state fire officials.
The quick-moving fire claimed the lives of three more people Saturday, bringing the Carr Fire’s death toll to five.
The Associated Press reports that a woman confirmed the death Saturday of her two children and her grandmother, all of whom had been missing in the fire:
Sherry Bledsoe says that her grandmother, 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe, and her children, 5-year-old James Roberts and 4-year-old Emily Roberts, died in the fire near Redding.
That’s in addition to two people who died Friday working to combat the flames. NPR’s Scott Neuman and Bill Chappell reported:
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced early Friday that a private bulldozer operator who was working on an active section of the fire had been killed. Hours later, the department said a Redding firefighter also died, according to Capital Public Radio’s Nick Miller.
