The Carr Wildfire in California is 39% contained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It happens countless times on roads across the United States: a vehicle gets a flat tire as it\u2019s driving along.<\/p>\n But on this road near Redding, Calif., when a tire failed last month on a trailer and its rim scraped the asphalt, the result proved to be\u00a0catastrophic for an entire region.<\/a><\/p>\n The sparks that shot out July 23 from that minor incident, California fire officials said, ignited what is now the sixth-most destructive wildfire in state history.<\/p>\n The Carr Fire blazed\u00a0a fiery path along Highway 299<\/a>, lighting up mile after mile of dry brush as it crept up on residential areas.<\/p>\n The blazed turned everything\u00a0it touched into ash, mangled metal and black embers<\/a>, and is still burning nearly two weeks later. It\u2019s killed\u00a0<\/strong>six people, scorched nearly 134,000 acres \u2014 an area larger\u00a0<\/strong>than\u00a0Denver<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and created its own weather system.<\/p>\n Ed Bledsoe lost his wife and their two great-grandchildren in the fire, all within 15 minutes.<\/p>\n The Shasta County resident\u00a0had left home to see a doctor,\u00a0<\/a>unaware of the fire\u2019s\u00a0erratic movement.<\/a>\u00a0At the time, it had burned for three days, but away from his neighborhood.<\/p>\n While he was out, his wife, Melody Bledsoe, 70, called and told him the fire was getting closer to their home. She begged him to come get her and their great-grandchildren: Emily Roberts, 4, and James Roberts, 5.<\/p>\n James took the phone and pleaded with his great-grandfather to hurry up and save them.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just kept saying, \u2018Grandpa, Come get me \u2026 come on, Grandpa,\u2019 \u201d Ed Bledsoe said.<\/p>\n He dropped everything and rushed home. But the roads were congested and the heat and flames so intense, the area near his house was cordoned off. His wife and the two children were\u00a0among the six people killed in the Carr Fire.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI tried to call them back and it just went to nothing,\u201d Bledsoe said as he wept. \u201cPoor babies and my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n The day Bledsoe\u2019s family died, the winds were so strong in Redding, they uprooted trees, ripped off roofs and downed power lines. Experts\u00a0described it as a \u201cfirenado,<\/a>\u201d when a fire\u2019s intense heat causes the air to heat up and rise rapidly. That, combined with strong winds, creates a vortex similar to a dust devil that pulls fires in\u00a0different directions.<\/a><\/p>\n Redding resident Dominic Galvin said he and his wife did not think the fire would get that big so fast, and scrambled to get out at the last minute.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we saw the fire on the ridge \u2026 once we saw it there we knew it was coming, but it was too late then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His wife, Sylvia Castaneda, broke down in tears as she recounted their loss.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a lot of photos from my childhood, from life, and everything is gone. It seems like part of my life is gone. There\u2019s nothing \u2014 just ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n Firefighter David Spliethof was doing his job as a spotter pilot, flying over the fiery chaos to assess damage and flag trouble. As he flew over his neighborhood this week, he realized his home had burned to ashes, too.<\/p>\n He took a picture of the charred debris where his house once stood and continued fighting the blaze, at times working 24-hour shifts with some of the more than\u00a04,300 people fighting the Carr Fire.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t feel that I did anything special,\u201d he said of continuing to work despite losing his home. \u201cOnce I saw my house gone \u2026 there\u2019s going to be plenty of time to go back through the remains and see what we can salvage.\u201d<\/p>\n Other firefighters lost their lives while trying to save others.<\/p>\n Of the six people killed in the Carr Fire, two were firefighters: Jeremy Stoke, who was helping evacuate people, and an unidentified bulldozer operator killed while fighting the flames.<\/p>\n To show their appreciation\u00a0to firefighters and emergency personnel<\/a>, Northern California communities are offering them food, water, even free haircuts. Some have posted handwritten signs all over the city. \u201cBest first responders ever! Our heroes,\u201d one sign read.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to show our gratitude for fighting to save our city,\u201d said Redding resident Nichole Grubbs-Miller, who posted some of the signs.<\/p>\n All that\u2019s left of some neighborhoods are piles of ash, concrete and charred cars. Preetha Reddy said her street in Redding looks like a war zone.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing left. It looks like a bomb hit it,\u201d she said. Residents are not allowed to enter, and the destruction seems surreal.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they\u2019d only let us in and have it sink in,\u201d Reddy said.<\/p>\n Fire officials said\u00a0some areas in Shasta County\u00a0<\/a>remain under evacuation orders because shifting winds and steep terrain are creating hazardous conditions. The weather this weekend will not provide much relief for the firefighters in Redding, with temperatures forecast to be in the mid-90s and wind gusts of up to 30 mph, CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford said.<\/p>\n Firefighter Rick Johnson said the humidity and triple-digit temperatures are difficult enough without adding the heat from the fire. The blaze is so large and hot, it is creating its own localized weather system with strong winds, making it difficult to predict which way it will spread.<\/p>\n The Carr Fire has burned about 1,500 structures to the ground and is the largest of 11 major wildfires\u00a0racing through California<\/a>\u00a0and stretching state resources. California has already spent a quarter of its firefighting budget for the year just in July.<\/p>\n Firefighters are struggling to stop the blazes, with the Carr Fire 39% contained by late Friday night.<\/p>\n Fire officials have issued a grim prediction, warning that massive blazes will cost the state billions of dollars over the next decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing in California right now is more destructive, larger fires burning at rates that we have historically never seen,\u201d Cal Fire spokesman Jonathan Cox said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tribwgntv.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/08\/ca-carr-wildfire.jpeg?quality=85&strip=all&w=400&h=225&crop=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt caught residents by surprise<\/h3>\n
The winds caused a tornado of fire<\/h3>\n
Firefighters suffered losses, too<\/h3>\n
Some areas look \u2018like a bomb hit\u2019<\/h3>\n
Carr is one of 11 big fires in the state<\/h3>\n