their great grandchildrens moments before the fire reached them. >> it's coming at me. the fire's coming in the back door. come on, grandpa. i said i'm right down the road. emily said i love you, grandpa. and junior says i love you. come and get us. come and get us. i said i'm on my way. >> reporter: the fire is so large and temperatures so hot it's creating its own weather system. it can be seen from space. winds whipped towering flachls into that firefighters described as fire tornadoes. fire doubled in size overnight over the weekend. the fire threatening and burning parts of redding, california, population more than 90,000. >> this fire is scary. this is something we haven't seen before in the city. >> reporter: some were given 30 minutes to evacuate not knowing if they'd ever see their homes again. >> it looked like an atomic bomb