10,000 More People Ordered To Flee California Wildfires

REDDING, CA — About 10,000 more people were ordered evacuated as two wildfires surged toward small lake towns in Northern California while the state’s largest and deadliest blaze of the year slowed slightly after days of explosive growth, authorities said.

The twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties flared up late Sunday, forcing the new evacuations from the 4,700-resident town of Lakeport and other communities near Clear Lake, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of San Francisco. The blazes have destroyed six homes and threaten 10,000 others. So far, the flames have blackened 87 square miles (225 square kilometers), with minimal containment.

Those fires were among 17 burning across the state, where fire crews were stretched to the limit.

To the north, near Redding, California, where an unpredictable blaze killed six people, a man whose wife and two great-grandchildren were among the dead said he did not receive any warning to evacuate.

Ed Bledsoe told CBS News he did not know his home was in danger when he left his wife, Melody, and the 4- and 5-year-old children to run an errand on Thursday.

“If I’d have any kind of warning, I’d have never ever left my family in that house,” Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe said he received a phone call from his wife 15 minutes after he left saying he needed to get home because the fire was approaching. He said one of the children told him the blaze was at the back door. When he tried to return, the road was blocked and flames prevented him from returning on foot.