The Carr Fire, which originated Monday, July 23rd, just north of Whiskeytown Lake on Highway 299 from a mechanical failure of a vehicle, tripled in size Thursday going from 6,773 acres to 28,763 acres in roughly 24 hours.
The massive fast moving blaze also became deadly when a private bulldozer operator was killed as the fire roared towards the City of Redding. As of last reports late Thursday evening, 15 structures had been destroyed and officials expect these numbers to increase significantly as the fire had jumped the Sacramento River as emergency personnel conduct evacuations as quickly as possible in suburban neighborhoods west of Redding.
(video by Jonathan Harris)
Timelapse view of the Carr fire from Market St. bridge downtown Redding. This timelapse is over a 15 minute period with each frame at a 6 second exposure. The light you see isn’t the flames themselves, just what’s reflecting off the smoke.
Almost 200 homes in the towns of Whiskeytown and French Gulch were under mandatory evacuation orders Thursday as fire destroyed a marina on Wiskeytown Lake and reportedly more than 40 boats.
The fire became very active throughout the day. Firefighters continue to work aggressively to build containment lines around the Carr Fire. Their efforts have been hampered today due to extreme fire behavior and unfavorable weather conditions. Continued hot dry weather is forecast for the remainder of the week with triple digit temperatures.
There are a total of 1,748 Fire personnel with 110 engines, 10 helicopters, 22 dozers and 34 water tankers deployed to the almost 30,000 acre blaze which is only 6% contained.
(video courtesy CalTrans 2)
A very large area is under evacuation orders as law enforcement is doing evacuations as fast as possible. There have been some injuries to civilians and firefighters. An evacuation center at Shasta High School was closed and a new one was opened at Shasta College.
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