'I WAS TRYING TO GET TO THEM'
The Sacramento Bee newspaper said family members identified the dead as 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe, and her two great-grandchildren, James Roberts, 4, and Emily Roberts, 5.
The children's mother, Sherry Bledsoe, was quoted by the newspaper as saying, "My kids are deceased, that's all I can say," as she left the sheriff's office on Saturday.
According to the Sacramento Bee account, Melody Bledsoe's husband, Ed Bledsoe, wept as he recalled trying to get back to the family's house after he had left to run an errand on Thursday, only to learn that the fire was closing in on them. He told the newspaper that he spoke to the children on the phone as he raced in vain to return in time to save them.
"I talked to them until the fire got them," he was quoted as saying. "I was trying to get to them, I was trying to get to the fire."
Sheriff Tom Bosenko declined to provide details about the three deaths. At a community meeting in Redding late on Saturday, he told Reuters, "There were three confirmed fatalities at that location."
So far this year, wildfires have scorched almost 4.3 million acres (1.7 million hectares) across the country, less than last year but still higher than the 3.7 million-acre (1.5 million-hectare) average for the same period over the last decade. California has been particularly hard hit with several fierce blazes menacing large populated areas.
One of those, the Cranston fire, prompted a rare closure of much of Yosemite National Park last week, while another forced mass evacuations from the mountain resort community of Idyllwild east of Los Angeles.
Fire officials said the Carr Fire in particular has burned with an "unprecedented" intensity and unpredictable progression that has confounded them.
As of Saturday night, ground crews backed by a squadron of 17 water-dropping helicopters had managed to carve buffer lines around just 5 percent of the fire's perimeter, leaving the blaze largely unchecked.
At a community meeting in Redding, fire command spokesman Rick Young said 150 fire engines had been newly deployed to the blaze, many from out of state. National Guard troops also were called in to assist at roadblocks.
"We have experienced a lot of looting in these evacuation zones," Redding Police Chief Roger Moore said, adding that police had made at least one arrest and were searching for several other suspects.
