REDDING, California: A fast-growing northern California wildfire killed a second firefighter on Friday after high winds drove it into the city of Redding, prompting mass evacuations, destroying 500 structures and threatening thousands of other dwellings and businesses, officials said.
Flames raging in California's scenic Shasta-Trinity area erupted into a firestorm that jumped across the Sacramento River and swept into the western side of Redding, home to about 90,000 people, forcing residents to flee.
Firefighters and police "went into life-safety mode," hustling door to door to usher civilians out of harm's way, said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).
Streets in the Western town were all but deserted, with thick, sickly-brown smoke filling the air, and plumes of smoke rising to the west.
Gale-force winds on Thursday night created a fire "tornado" said CalFire Director Ken Pimlott.
"This fire was whipped up into a whirlwind of activity, uprooting trees, moving vehicles, moving parts of roadways," Pimlott told a news briefing.
Such highly erratic, storm-like wildfires have grown commonplace in the state, Pimlott said.
"These are extreme conditions, this is how fires are in California," he said. "We need to take heed and evacuate, evacuate, evacuate."
California has had its worst start to the fire season in a decade, with 289,727 acres burned through Friday morning, according to National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) data.
Governor Jerry Brown requested emergency federal assistance to prevent an "imminent catastrophe" as Shasta County tried to find supplies and water for 30,000 evacuated residents and care for horses and cattle rescued from ranches and farms.
CalFire reported 500 structures destroyed by the blaze.
