A wildfire that roared with little warning into a Northern California city claimed two lives as thousands of people scrambled to escape before the walls of flames descended from forested hills onto their neighbourhoods, officials said Friday.
Residents who gathered their belongings in haste described a chaotic and congested getaway as the embers blew up to a mile ahead of flames and the fire leaped across the wide Sacramento River and torched subdivisions in Redding, a city of 92,000 about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.
A brush fire in northern California has turned into a dangerous blaze, spreading to more than 2,500 acres and threatening homes on its first day.
Cars scorched by the Carr Fire rest at a residence in Redding, Calif., on Friday, July 27, 2018.
The blaze leveled at least 125 homes, leaving neighbourhoods smoldering and 37,000 people under evacuation orders.
The flames moved so fast that firefighters working in oven-like temperatures and bone-dry conditions had to drop efforts to battle the blaze at one point to help people escape.
