 the firefighters ran up and the police officers came with bull horns and they said we can't save your life you must get out the car fire in Shasta County now the seventh most destructive fire in California history we'll hear from those who owe their lives to the men and women fighting that massive blaze plus dramatic video of a transmission tower caught in the flames I'm Brian man the state's emergency operations center Cal OES headquarters close to 13,000 firefighters continuing fighting the more than a dozen large wildfires up and down California again today let's run down the numbers of the four largest fires in the state at the moment we'll start in the south and work our way once again north the cranched in fire that's the one in Riverside County holding steady 13,000 plus acres containment up to 82% that's up 25% from yesterday over 1200 fire personnel still on that fire the Ferguson fire the one in Yosemite Valley Mariposa County over 57,000 acres containment at 33% holding steady was still over 3600 firefighters the Mendocino complex fire that's in both Mendocino and Lake counties over 74,000 acres it grew by 18,000 acres overnight containment at 12% over 2000 firefighters and then of course the car fire in Shasta County over 100,000 acres now it grew 11,000 more acres containment though up 7% now at 27% still over 3600 firefighters the car fire now the seventh most destructive fire in California history it is now destroyed over 1200 structures damaged 200 more and is still threatening more than 2500 structures burning more than 170 square miles if the car fire were a city it would be the fifth largest city in California roughly the size of Oakland and Sacramento combined now fortunately the weather has turned a bit more favorable for firefighters that's why you saw the containment numbers for the car fire rise and it's why local law enforcement officials in Shasta County have begun allowing some of the 38,000 people who were evacuated to begin returning to their homes and for those who had a home to return to it was an emotional return the firefighters ran up and the police officers came with bull horns and they said we can't save your life you must get out and they ran in that care home and there's children disabled children and they picked them up and they ran out with them it was like a movie and then we just like left our purses everything just left it in the house and we just drove away thankful it's kind of a split feeling I mean you feel happy that ours is here but here that there's 800 burned down it's mixed feelings I think the most thing we just kept saying is it doesn't matter because as long as we have our life we're you know and I get cheery eyed every time I think about how the firefighters went into the flames and we just ran out so I've held it together really good until I think about the firefighters the next door neighbors were all outside and we're going looking you know and then a lady zooms down here saying you know they're evacuating get out so I think she was fun subdivision way over there so then we came in and loaded up as fast as we could and left well for those who have been displaced by the car fire a local assistant center will be opening Thursday August 2nd at Shasta high school you can consider the center a one-stop shop for recovery assistance it will be open from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily from August the 2nd through the 8th and I want to quickly show you some dramatic video of a transmission tower that burned in the car fire this is from a mounted camera on the Shasta valley we've sped it up but you can clearly see the flames get closer and closer larger and larger it is suspected the building at the bottom may have burned the data from a remote transmitter inside the building gave one final set of readings showing a temperature of 140 degrees and then it went dark if you are still wondering if your home survived the car fire the Shasta County Sheriff's Office now has this interactive map on their Facebook page and this map allows you to see the status of structures affected by the car fire now it's not a hundred percent complete but it is being updated regularly by the cow fire damage inspection specialists for the latest information on any of the wildfires currently burning in California you can go to the cow fire incident page that's fire dot ca.gov and for shelter information or resources you can go to wildfirerecovery.org we've got information there for evacuation shelters local assisted centers and links to your local county websites for more information for all of us at Cal OES as well as our local state and federal partners I'm Brian May thanks for watching