Man Heartbroken After Losing Wife, Great-Grandchildren In Carr Fire

REDDING (CBS News) -- The death toll is rising as multiple wildfires force tens of thousands of evacuations in Northern California. The so-called Carr Fire, raging right next to the city of Redding, has grown to nearly 150 square miles and is only 17 percent contained.

The fire has killed six people, including three from one family: 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe and her two great-grandchildren. They died when the Carr Fire, one of nine major wildfires burning across California, engulfed their home.

"I was only gone about 15 minutes when my wife called and said, 'You gotta get here. The fire's coming up the hill,'" husband Ed Bledsoe told CBS News correspondent Carter Evans.

Bledsoe said he had no idea his home was in danger when he left his wife with their two great-grandchildren, ages four and five, to run an errand.

"I was talking to my little grandson on the phone, he was saying, 'Grandpa, please, you gotta come and help us, the fire's at the back door,'" Bledsoe said, choking up. "I said, 'I'm right by you, honey, just hold on, grandpa's coming.'"

But he said the road was blocked with cars and the flames stopped him from returning on foot.

"I would've died right there with them. They're that important to me," Bledsoe said.

He told CBS Sacramento that his wife wrapped the children in wet blankets.

"She wet a bunch of blankets and put them down at the side of the bed. She got a wet blanket and put one on her. Got over the top of them, and they lay there until the fire took them," Bledsoe said.

In:
• Cal Fire