2 Children, Great-Grandmother Die in Carr Fire
REDDING (CBS/AP) -- The death count from the rapidly-growing Carr Fire rose to five Saturday after two young children and their great-grandmother who had been unaccounted for were confirmed dead.
"My babies are dead," Sherry Bledsoe said through tears after she and family members met with Shasta County sheriff's deputies.
Bledsoe's two children, James Roberts, 5, and Emily Roberts, 4, were stranded with her grandmother Melody Bledsoe, 70, when fire swept through the rural area where they were staying Thursday.
The three were among more than a dozen people reported missing after the furious wind-driven blaze took residents by surprise and leveled several neighborhoods.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said he expects to find several of those people alive and just out of touch with loved ones. Officers have gone to homes of several people reported missing and found that cars were gone — a strong indication they fled.
The fire that was ignited Monday in forested hills grew overnight to 127 square miles (328 square kilometers). It pushed southwest of Redding toward tiny communities of Ono, Igo and Gas Point, where scorching heat, winds and bone-dry conditions complicated firefighting efforts.
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Bledsoe's husband was out getting supplies at the store when the boy called him and said he needed to get home because the fire was approaching.
Donald Kewley, the boyfriend of Bledsoe's granddaughter, Shelley Hoskinson, lives near the Quartz Hill neighborhood and said he called to check on the family as he saw the flames closing in.
"She was screaming, "It's getting closer," and you could hear the sirens," Kewley told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Then the phone went dead."
Kewley returned to the burned out neighborhood on Friday afternoon.
"We went back there and the whole neighborhood is gone," he told the paper. "It's absolutely obliterated. It's just a smoldering mess."
Bledsoe told CBS 13 he didn't know how he will carry on if the three had fallen victim to the flames.
"I just don't see how I can go without them," he said with emotion rippling through his voice. "Somebody has to know where they're at,"
If the Red Cross does not have a record of your loved one, you call the missing person hotline at 530-225-4277. This is for the City of Redding and for unincorporated Shasta County.
© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report
