California wildfire leaves second firefighter dead as lethal winds turns blaze into tornado of flames, forcing thousands to flee

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Chloe Chaplain28 July 2018

A fast-growing wildfire in California has claimed the life of a second firefighter after high winds drove into a city, prompting mass evacuations and destroying thousands of homes.

Flames raging in California's scenic Shasta-Trinity area erupted late Thursday into a firestorm that jumped across the Sacramento River and swept into the western side of Redding.

The city is home to about 90,000 people, many of home were forced to flee for their lives.

Firefighters and police "went into life-safety mode," officials said, hustling door to door to usher civilians out of harm's way.

Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), said that erratic winds blowing with gale force overnight whipped the blaze into a frenzy.

The blaze was transformed into fire tornadoes that uprooted trees and tore into structures. "It was like a Tasmanian devil," Mr McLean told Reuters.

Evacuation: firefighters escorted people to an emergency centre
AP

Some 37,000 people remained under evacuation orders on Friday, as flames continued to burn in pockets of the city's west side.

Sixty-five structures were destroyed by the blaze, but that number is likely to increase significantly, with the number of homes lost likely to run into "the hundreds".

Emergency: More than 44,000 acres of land was scorched by Friday morning
Getty Images

By Friday morning the fire had scorched 44,450 acres.

"When you're dealing with temperatures that high, it's really, really hot heat," said Cal Fire spokesman Scott Kenney in a phone interview.

Lethal: The flames engulfed buildings
AP

"Stress, as far as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, are really serious situations that a firefighter can get into, so the tactics kind of get hindered by temperatures that high."

The Carr Fire was one of nearly 90 large blazes burning nationally, most of them across the American West. One of those prompted the closure of much of Yosemite National Park in California.

Dangerous: Two firefighters have been killed
AFP/Getty Images

Roads out of Redding, about 150 miles (240 km) north of Sacramento, were jammed overnight as motorists tried to escape the flames.

The blaze on Thursday killed a bulldozer operator working with fire teams to clear brush around the fire. A member of the Redding Fire Department was also reported killed on Friday. A Redding hospital said it had treated eight people, including three firefighters.

Devastating: a women surveys damage to her grandmother's home
AP

Video and images posted on social media showed flames engulfing structures, as an orange glow lit up the night sky.

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