US okays aid as California battles raging wildfires

Redding : The US federal government approved aid Saturday for California as thousands of firefighters battled to contain a series of deadly raging wildfires that have killed six people, including two young children and their great grandmother, and destroyed hundreds of buildings. The largest of the fires menacing the state has nearly doubled in size, while another pushed thousands of people to flee and a third forced the partial closure of the popular Yosemite National Park.

A huge column of smoke rotated rapidly above the massive Carr Fire with such strength it looked like a tornado in a fire whirl sometimes dubbed a “firenado.” Melody Bledsoe, 70, and her two great-grandchildren James and Emily Roberts -- aged just five and four respectively -- died as the fire consumed their rural trailer home. The blaze also killed two fire workers, Cal Fire said.

Another firefighter died in the Ferguson Fire. In declaring an emergency in California, President Donald Trump “ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from a wildfire beginning on July 23,” the White House said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency “is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency,” it said.