A sixth person died in a northern California wildfire Saturday, US officials said, as a couple of other fast-growing wildfires in the state expanded by more than 25 percent overnight and continued to spread.
It happens countless times on roads across America: a vehicle gets a flat tire, usually just a temporary inconvenience.
But on one road near Redding, California, when a tire failed last month on a trailer and its rim scraped the asphalt, the result proved to be catastrophic for an entire region.
The sparks that shot out July 23 from that minor incident, California fire officials said, ignited what is now the sixth-most destructive wildfire in state history.
The Carr Fire blazed a fiery path along Highway 299, lighting up mile after mile of dry brush as it crept up on residential areas.
The blaze turned everything it touched into ash, mangled metal and black embers, and is still burning nearly two weeks later. It's killed six people, scorched nearly 134,000 acres -- an area larger than Denver -- and created its own weather system.
