20 from NC deployed to help with California wildfires as 2nd firefighter is killed

20 from NC deployed to help with California wildfires as 2nd firefighter is killed

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (WNCN/AP) - The North Carolina Forest Service said it has sent 20 people to help fight raging California wildfires, one of which claimed the life of a second firefighter Sunday.

North Carolina has an additional 50 people spread across California, Oregon, Utah, Texas and Colorado helping with wildfires, officials said Sunday.

The second firefighter died while fighting the Ferguson Fire -- a huge blaze near California's Yosemite National Park.
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Mike Theune, a spokesman at the Ferguson Fire, says the firefighter was treated for injuries at the scene Sunday but died before he could be hospitalized.

Theune says the firefighter was part of a crew removing brush and other fuel near the fire's front lines. He didn't have additional details.
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Earlier this month, firefighter Barden Varney was killed when the bulldozer he was operating overturned. At least seven other firefighters have been injured since the blaze broke out July 13.
 

Some evacuations have been lifted but officials say Yosemite Valley, the heart of tourism in the park will remain closed until August 3.

A Northern California sheriff earlier Sunday said a sixth person died in a raging wildfire that has destroyed more than 500 buildings.
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Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said Sunday that the remains were found within the boundary of the Carr Fire near Redding, about 230 miles north of San Francisco.

He said the victim, who was not identified, didn't evacuate despite receiving an evacuation warning.

Bosenko says the sheriff's department has seven outstanding missing persons reports.

The Carr Fire has also claimed the lives of two firefighters and two children and their great-grandmother.

Don Ray Smith, 81, was a bulldozer operator who was helping clear vegetation in the path of the wildfire when he died. Redding Fire Inspector Jeremy Stoke was also killed, though no details were provided.

The other three victims - 70-year-old Melody Bledsoe and her two great-grandchildren, 5-year-old James Roberts and 4-year-old Emily Roberts - died when walls of flames swept through the family's rural property on the outskirts of Redding.