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Firefighting crews have made progress against the deadliest wildfire in California historyx amid concerns the death toll of 56 would rise as search teams work their way through the burned-out town of Paradise in the state’s north.
A week after the Camp Fire roared through Paradise, more than 9000 personnel from many US states are fighting the blaze, as well as the Woolsey Fire hundreds of miles to the south.
Authorities attributed the high number of casualties to the staggering speed with which the wind-driven flames incinerated Paradise. Nearly 8700 homes were destroyed and 15,500 buildings threatened, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said on Thursday.
Cal Fire said 40 per cent of the Camp Fire had been contained, up from 35 per cent, even as the blaze grew to 57,000 hectares.
US National Guard troops are in Paradise, a town of about 27,000 in the Sierra foothills about 280km north of San Francisco, looking for remains of victims. One hundred thirty people, most over the age of 65, were still listed as missing.
Authorities fear that in the crush to flee the fast-approaching flames, some elderly residents may have been left behind. At least 22 cadaver dogs are part of the search.
Those who survived the flames but lost their homes were adapting to a refugee lifestyle, with many finding a haven at a still-open Walmart in Paradise. A section of the store’s parking lot was roped off for use as a distribution centre for clothes, food and coffee, while people who fled their homes set up dozens of tents in an adjacent field or slept in their cars in the parking lot. Portable toilets were brought in.
Evacuees milling in the parking lot faced morning temperatures that dropped below zero degrees Celsius and many wore breathing masks for protection from lingering smoke.
Paradise’s ghostly expanse of empty lots covered in ash and strewn with twisted wreckage and debris made a strong impression on Governor Jerry Brown, US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and other officials who toured the devastation on Wednesday and were due to visit the scene of the Woolsey Fire on Thursday.
The high winds have eased, Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott told reporters late on Wednesday, but vegetation around the Camp Fire remained critically dry and conditions were dangerous.
The Butte County disaster coincided with blazes in Southern California, including the Woolsey Fire, which has killed at least two people, destroyed more than 500 structures and at its height displaced 200,000 people west of Los Angeles.
Cal Fire said the Woolsey Fire was about 57 per cent contained on Thursday, up from 52 per cent, and some mandatory evacuation orders in Ventura County were lifted. Crews battling the fire were hoping for a help from the weather on Thursday with light onshore winds expected to bring slightly cooler temperatures and higher humidity levels.
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