Firefighters just off Placer Road try to stop the Carr Fire from advancing toward Igo on Saturday morning, July 28.
The fire is about 2 miles from the community, which is to the southwest of Redding. The five-day-old fire’s burned area jumped from 48,000 acres Friday evening to 80,906 acres by Saturday morning, a swath of 126 square miles.
Two firefighters, Jeremy Stoke and bulldozer operator Don Smith, were confirmed killed. Smith, 81, had been hired privately to help with the fight, California fire officials said. His body was found late on Thursday in Redding, the city worst hit.
Family members said three people who had been reported missing were dead. Sherry Bledsoe said her two children and her grandmother died near Redding. The dead were identified as 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe and her great-grandchildren, James Roberts, five, and Emily Roberts, four.
Family members had been desperately searching since flames leveled the home where they were stranded on Thursday. Melody Bledsoe’s husband was out getting supplies when the boy called him and said he needed to get home.
Some 500 structures were destroyed, and 38,000 people remain under evacuation orders, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
