[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”on” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”off” author=”off” date=”off” categories=”off” comments=”off” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”background” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”light” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.56)” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]
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It only took a little over 15 minutes for Ed Bledsoe to lose three lives that meant the world to him \u2014 his wife and their two great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
He had left his home in Shasta County, California, on Thursday to go to the doctor, he told CNN on Sunday. The Carr Fire had been burning for four days at that point and Bledsoe said he didn\u2019t realize the fire was coming into his neighborhood.<\/p>\n
He also said his family was never told to evacuate.<\/p>\n
While he was out, his 70-year-old wife, Melody Bledsoe, called and told him she could see the fire and that he needed to come get her and their great-grandchildren, 4-year-old Emily Roberts and 5-year-old James Roberts, who Ed Bledsoe called \u201cJunior.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018I\u2019m on my way.\u2019 So I just throwed down everything and took off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ed Bledsoe said he wasn\u2019t able to use his usual route to get home because of traffic congestion in the fire area, so he left his car and tried to make it home on foot but that, too, was not possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took off running down there (toward his house) and I helped some guy that got burnt \u2026 I got him and helped him out of there and when I got back down there the fire was\u201d \u2014 Bledsoe paused, seeming to search for a word to accurately convey the chaos \u2014 \u201cthe fire was \u2026 just intense.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I still tried to get down in there and they come and stopped me and wouldn\u2019t let me get down in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bledsoe said he got back in his car and sped through an alternate route, passing \u201ceverybody in the dirt\u201d but still could not get to his house.<\/p>\n
At the same time, his sons also tried to get to the house, he said, and heat and flames were so intense as one son tried \u201cit burned his hair off. It took his breath,\u201d adding that his son\u2019s house was also on fire.<\/p>\n
In those final minutes, unable to get to his wife and their great-grandchildren, Bledsoe was able to get through on the phone.<\/p>\n
Bledsoe broke into sobs as he described the words that passed between them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just kept saying \u2018Grandpa, come and get me,\u201d Bledsoe said, referring to 5-year-old James. \u201c\u2018The fire\u2019s coming in the back door. C\u2019mon Grandpa.\u2019 I said \u2018I\u2019m right down the road.’\u201d<\/p>\n
His granddaughter and wife were also on the phone, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily says, \u2018I love you, Grandpa.\u2019 Grandma said \u2018I love you, Grandpa \u2026\u2019 Junior said, \u2018I love you \u2026 come and get us \u2026 come and get us \u2026\u2019 I said \u2018I\u2019m on my way \u2026 \u2018 He talked until he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to call them back and it just went to nothing,\u201d Bledsoe said as he wept. \u201cPoor babies and my wife \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being disconnected by phone, Bledsoe said that at the time he still had hope his family was alive.<\/p>\n
He said he was told that the sheriff\u2019s office picked them up and rescued them. He told the fire department he thought his wife and great-grandkids were in the house. Fire officials sent a fire crew in and reported no bodies were found.<\/p>\n
A search then commenced for the family.<\/p>\n
Fliers were created. The family even created a\u00a0GoFundMe page<\/a>\u00a0because, according to that page, Bledsoe was renting the home and didn\u2019t have insurance.<\/p>\n The day after being told there were no bodies in the home, a relative who\u2019s a firefighter told the department they needed to search the rubble again. That\u2019s when the bodies were found.<\/p>\n Bledsoe\u2019s wife had wrapped the kids and herself in wet blankets as the fire drew near.<\/p>\n \u201cI would\u2019ve liked to have went in there and died with them,\u201d Bledsoe said.<\/p>\n Bledsoe said even though the family was not told to evacuate, he feels more guilty than angry.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t blame it on nobody but me. I shouldn\u2019t have left my family in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n Bledsoe and his wife had raised the two great-grandchildren since birth.<\/p>\n \u201cI raised them, took care of them and taught them everything they know. Me and Grandma,\u201d he said, referring to his wife.<\/p>\n Bledsoe said his wife, Melody, \u201cwas the best wife a guy could have. They didn\u2019t make them no better.\u201d<\/p>\n He said when the couple first got together, she had about $24,000 in the bank. A child in their neighborhood needed surgery, but the child\u2019s family did not have the finances so Melody wrote a check to the family for the child to get the surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what kind of woman she was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Family friend Jason Decker told\u00a0CNN affiliate KGO<\/a>\u00a0that 4-year-old Emily loved to play with other children in the area and \u201clit up the room.\u201d<\/p>\n Decker said 5-year-old James, idolized his great-grandfather and wanted to wear suspenders just like him.<\/p>\n In his great-grandson\u2019s last moments speaking to him on the phone, Bledsoe said he \u201csounded happy because he was talking to me and he knew Grandpa was coming to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n As of Sunday, the Carr Fire had burned through 95,368 acres since it began on Monday and was 17% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Re Blog ” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Re Blog from<\/strong><\/span>:-<\/p>\n POSTED 7:19 AM, JULY 30, 2018, BY\u00a0CNN WIRE<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>UPDATED AT 01:15PM, JULY 30, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n Desperate phone call linked man with wife, 2 great-grandkids moments before they died in California Carr Fire<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”10″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] and<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button admin_label=”Button” button_url=”http:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/?p=30751″ url_new_window=”off” button_text=”Back to the innovation blog” button_alignment=”center” background_layout=”light” custom_button=”on” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” 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comments=”off” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”background” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”light” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.56)” module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] It only took a little over 15 minutes for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fire-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32515,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32511\/revisions\/32515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefireflyinnovations.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Raising great-grandchildren<\/h3>\n
\n[\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\nDevelop your innovation skills<\/span><\/h4>\n
build a better future\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
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\n[\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\nFirst-responder support posts<\/span><\/h3>\n
Click for the support blog<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n
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