Update: Another Deadly Northern California Wildfire On The Move

Update at 5:30 p.m.: As wildfires rage throughout the state, Governor Jerry Brown today ask for help from the Trump Administration in the form of more aircraft and other supplies to battle the Carr Fire burning Shasta County.

Brown sent a letter to the President and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requesting a Presidential Emergency Declaration for direct federal assistance to support the communities impacted by the deadly blaze.

“Supplemental federal assistance is necessary to save lives and to protect property, public health and safety, and to lessen the effects of this imminent catastrophe,” said Governor Brown in the letter. “I am requesting Direct Federal Assistance, including Department of Defense air assets to immediately mitigate the impacts of this fire; shelter supplies and water for 30,000 evacuated residents in Shasta County; U.S. Department of Agriculture’s assistance in evacuating large animals; mass care; evacuation assistance for individuals with access and functional needs; and ambulatory transport.”

Further details on the fire can be viewed below.

Original post at 3 p.m.: Sonora, CA – In addition to the Mother Lode’s Ferguson Fire, Shasta County’s Carr Fire, now at 44,450 acres and three percent contained, has turned deadly.

CAL Fire officials report that a Redding firefighter, now identified as Jeremy Stoke, was killed while assigned to the blaze, which was ignited by a vehicle fire on Monday off Highway 299 in Whiskeytown. Yesterday, crews found the body of a privately hired bulldozer operator who was clearing vegetation in the fire path when rapidly moving flames overtook him.

Due to the wildfire’s explosive spread, many evacuees have had little time to prepare their departures, which has caused an operational focus shift to evacuation and life-saving. At least 37,000 people are currently under evacuation, including the entire city of Redding as firefighters deal with afternoon winds that could blow the blaze north into the city of Shasta Lake.

Although 65 structures are confirmed destroyed, officials expect that the count to jump as they say dozens of ruined and smoldering homes are viewable in aerial footage. Yesterday, ahead of declaring a disaster emergency for Mariposa County due to the Ferguson Fire, Governor Jerry Brown declared one for Shasta County.