Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO — Wildfires spread across California on Sunday, forcing officials to extend the closure of the famed Yosemite Valley by another week and maintain evacuations for thousands of people further north around Redding where the death toll climbed to at least six.
By far the most destructive inferno so far has been the Carr Fire, which has exploded to more than 90,000 acres after igniting from a vehicle spark July 23 in the tinder dry brush outside Redding. A wind-whipped firestorm Thursday sent residents of Redding and other smaller communities in its path fleeing for their lives, leaving at least 500 homes and other structures destroyed. A state fire official estimated the tally could be several hundred higher.
The huge blaze — already one of the top 20 in California history — has claimed at least six lives: Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke; 81-year-old Don Ray Smith, a civilian bulldozer operator; and 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe and her two great-grandchildren, James Roberts, 5, and Emily Roberts, 4. The family’s bodies were discovered in their home in Redding that was overcome by fire last Thursday night, when the two men also died. Officials said they had found another victim on Sunday, but they had no further details.
Hundreds of miles to the south, the 54,025-acre Ferguson Fire, which broke out July 13 outside Yosemite National Park continued to expand into a forest filled with millions of trees killed during California’s recent five-year drought—its most severe on record. The infernos were just two of 14 major wildfires that 10,000 firefighters are attacking across the Golden State.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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