Boy, 14, burned alive and his 17-year-old sister loses her legs after the family car caught fire trying to flee California wildfires that have killed 31
- Kai Shepherd, 14, died while his family was fleeing the Redwood Valley Fire on Monday
- His father Jon, 45; mother Sara, 40; and sister Kressa, 17; were badly injured and are still recovering in the hospital
- Kressa had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee
- All three family members are sedated at separate hospitals and may not know that Kai has died
A 14-year-old boy has been identified as of one of the 31 victims of the California wildfires.
The Shepherd family - parents Jon and Sara, son Kai and daughter Kressa - called family members around 1am Monday morning, saying they were fleeing their home.
The family split up into two cars, which caught fire as they were traveling the one mile down their driveway.
They then tried to escape on foot, but became caught up in the flames.
Neighbor Paul Hanssen found Kai dead, near his badly burned mother, 40, and sister, 17.
Kai Shepherd, 14 (bottom right), died on Monday trying to escape the Redwood Valley Fire with his family - father Jon, 45 (bottom left); mother Sara, 40 (top left); and sister Kressa, 17 (top right)
'He (Hanssen) stayed with the girls, kept them comfortable, and gave them water,' Sara's sister Mindi Ramos told KTVU. 'They were lucid. He called 911 and got the firefighters there.'
Jon Shepherd, 45, had gotten further down the road, where he was rescued by firefighters and taken to a burn unit in San Francisco.
Family members didn't know what happened to him until they started calling area hospitals.
The other three Shepherd family members were badly injured in the fire and are still recovering at the hospital. Above, a picture of a wildfire in Napa, California on Monday
The death toll has grown to 31 in the fires, and is expected to grow with hundreds still missing. Above, destroyed homes in Santa Rosa, California on Thursday
All three family members are heavily sedated so it's unclear if they even know that Kai is dead. Kressa and Sara are being treated at neighboring hospitals in Sacramento.
Jon Shepeherd reportedly suffered a minor heart attack, but is now in stable condition. He, along with his wife, have already undergone skin graft surgeries.
On Thursday, Kressa had both of her legs amputated below the knee because of severe muscle damage.
In addition to their injuries, the family's home was destroyed and it didn't have fire insurance.
Parents Jon and Sara have already undergone skin graft surgeries. Jon also suffered a minor heart attack
Kressa, pictured left with her brother, right, had both of her legs amputated below the knee
Sara's sister started a charity account for the family on Generosity.com, and it's already raised more than $70,000 of its $100,000 goal.
Sara's parents lived nearby and their house was spared in the fires. The plan is to bring the family back there to recuperate when they are healthy enough to leave the hospital.
Community members have offered to retrofit Sara's parents house.
'We have a huge community of people stepping up to support them,' Ramos said. 'It's really amazing, if there's one thing to be grateful for.'
Ramos remembered Kai as a sweet, brave and compassionate boy who loved the San Francisco Giants and wrestling.
'He could just see into people's hearts, you know?' Ramos said.
Meanwhile, the communities of Northern California were preparing for another day under siege Friday, despite being driven to exhaustion by evacuations, destruction and danger amid the deadliest week of wildfires the state has ever seen.
'It wears you out,' said winemaker Kristin Belair, who was driving back from Lake Tahoe to her as-yet-unburnt home in Napa. 'Anybody who's been in a natural disaster can tell you that it goes on and on. I think you just kind of do hour by hour almost.'
The death toll had climbed to an unprecedented 31, and was expected to keep rising. Individual fires including the Oakland Hills blaze of 1991 had killed more people than any one of the current fires, but no collection of simultaneous fires in California had ever led to so many deaths, authorities said.
'We had series of statewide fires in 2003, 2007, 2008 that didn't have anything close to this death count,' said Daniel Berlant, a deputy director with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Hundreds more were injured or missing.
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