California blaze leaves two dead

International Desk: A raging wildfire in northern California has killed two firefighters and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The fires in Shasta county are being sucked up by strong winds to form "fire tornados" that are uprooting trees and overturning cars, fire officials say.

The blazes, known as the Carr fire, have destroyed at least 500 structures and are threatening thousands of homes.

Firefighters are battling the blaze, which is only 5% contained so far.

The wildfire began on Monday after a car malfunctioned. It has scorched over 48,000 acres (194 sq km) of land - an area larger than the city of San Francisco.

"We are seeing fire whirls - literally what can be described as a tornado," California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire) chief Ken Pimlott told reporters.

"This fire was whipped up into a whirlwind of activity" by gale-force winds, he said, "uprooting trees, moving vehicles, moving parts of roadways."

"These are extreme conditions... we need to take heed and evacuate, evacuate, evacuate."

More than 3,400 firefighters have been deployed - but the local fire department has warned that hot, dry weather is forecast for the rest of the week, and could make the blaze worse.

Two firefighters - fire inspector Jeremy Stoke, and a bulldozer operator who has not yet been named, died trying contain the blaze.

Three people - a great-grandmother and her two great-grandchildren, are currently missing, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The relatives of Melody Bledsoe, 70, Emily Roberts, five, and James Roberts, four, have appealed for information about their whereabouts.

Ms Bledsoe's husband, Ed, told local media that James had called him and said: "You need to come, the fire is coming at our house now."

Ed Bledsoe added: "I can't see how I can go on without them."
 

Source: Agencies
 

risingbd/Dhaka/July 29, 2018/A K Azad