California wildfires: What we can do and help you

The latest

• Twenty-nine people are dead in Northern California and have been killed in the south to continue to rage at both ends of the state.
• Ten search teams were working in Paradise, a northern town of 27,000 that was largely incinerated last week, and in surrounding communities. Authorities called in a DNA lab and teams of anthropologists to help identify victims.
• In Southern California, Malibu celebrities and mobile-home dwellers in nearby mountains were slowly learning Monday whether their homes had been spared or reduced to ash. Firefighters beat back a new round of winds Sunday and the fires' growth and destruction there are believed to have been stopped.
• Two spot fires emerged in Northern California on Monday, just south of Paradise, which fire officials are battling diligently. Firefighters are working to build a contingency to reach the fire from reaching Oroville, a town of 19,000 people.
• Governor Jerry Brown, President of the United States, said Donald Trump that "poor" forest management by the state is responsible for the fires. Mr. Brown replied that climate change is the biggest factor in California's fire problems.

How you can help

Canadians wishing to help those affected by the fires should first do some research in finding a reputable organization to donate to. The Charity Navigator website is one place to start. The American Red Cross and local branches of the United Way are also raising funds for wildfire relief, while the crowdfunding website GoFundMe has collected a page of recent evidence in the country.

Where are the fires now?

• Camp fire: The most destructive and deadliest of the fires started in the northern part of the state. In its initial 24 hours, the destruction was so fast and total that there was virtually no firefight at all, just rescues. It largely incinerated Paradise, a town of 27,000 residents, and surrounding communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. By Monday, 29 people had been killed, matching a state record for deaths in a single fire.
• Woolsey fire: This fire in Southern California 's Ventura and Los Angeles counties started Thursday and killed at least two people. It was stoked to even greater destructive force by the Santa Ana winds, a common fall occurrence in the state. The winds are produced by the surface of the Great Basin squeezing air down through canyons and pbades in Southern California's mountain ranges.
• Hill fire: Another Southern California fire, smaller than Woolsey, started Thursday and burned over 10,000 acres in only a few hours. So far, no deaths have been attributed to the Hill fire.

Damage so far

Statewide, 150,000 has been scourched 1,040 square kilometers, with out-of-state crews continuing to arrive. Whipping winds and tinder-dry conditions threaten more areas through the rest of the week, fire officials warned.

Public safety officials toured the Paradise area to begin the fight against the fire. Much of what makes the city function is gone. "Paradise was literally wiped off the map," said Tim Aboudara, a representative for the International Association of Fire Fighters. He said at least 36 firefighters lost their homes, most in the Paradise area.

Damage to celebrities and filming rentals

Many celebrities took to Twitter and Instagram over the weekend, they were updating their lives in California and the safety of their families.

Canadian rocker Neil Young said on his website that he lost his Malibu-area home in the disaster, which he linked to climate change. "Firefighters have never seen anything like this in their lives. Mr. Young said on neilyoungarchives.com, "I have heard that said countless times in the past two days, and I have lost my home to a California fire, now another.

Meanwhile, action star Gerard Butler posted a photo on Instagram that showed a burned-out structure and a badly scorched vehicle.

Robin Thicke 's Malibu home completely down, according to his representative. The 41-year-old singer said on Instagram that he, his girlfriend and his two kids are "safe and friendly" and have been thankful to firefighters. Miley Cyrus tweeted that her home burned, but that's what Liam Hemsworth was safe.

Camille Grammer Meyer of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" also lost her home on Saturday night, Howard Bragman, publicist. Caitlyn Jenner learned Sunday Sunday that her house was spared. Many others including Orlando Bloom, Alyssa Milano, Lady Gaga, the Kardashian family, "The Office" actor Rainn Wilson and fashion designer Donna Karan were among evacuees.

Paramount Ranch's "Western Town," a landmark movie rental dating back to 1927 that included a jail, hotel and saloon, burned to the ground. The TV series "Westworld" is among the many productions that have been filmed at the ranch in the mountains west of Los Angeles.

Trump's incendiary remarks

What Trump said: On his Remembrance Day Trip to Europe, USA President Donald Trump set off a political firestorm back in the United States with a tweet blaming the fires on state forest-management policies, and threatening to withhold federal funding policies were not changed:

How California responded: Governor Jerry Brown said, "This is the most important source of the problem. "And those who are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we're now witnessing," he said. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor-elect who will replace Mr. Brown in January, also accused Mr. Trump of putting partisanship ahead of relief efforts.

The political context: There is little love lost between Mr. Trump and California, Hillary Clinton, in 2016. In this fall's midterm elections, the Democrats managed to flip several Republican-held California seats in the House of Representatives , while also maintaining their position on the state of the Senate and electing Mr. Newsom to the governor's office.

Fire management's fraught history: American wildfires worse, but for a leader in the world – and without mentioning climate change's impact – is stretching the truth. The federal government owns nearly 46 percent of California's land area, including many of the northern national forests in areas devastated by the Camp Fire. In California, as in much of the U.S. and Canada, fire services are quickly becoming a reality. Many scientists have concluded that it is more likely that they will be more susceptible to larger, more destructive and less controllable fires. But one reason scientists can say it is a big factor in the current fires is that some Northern California areas now burning had fires in 2005 and 2008, and are not "fuel-choked closed-canopy forests," University of Utah fire scientist Philip Dennison told Associated Press. The other major fire, in Southern California, Dr. Dennison said.

The biggest picture: California and climate change

Drought and warmer weather in California. While the state is finally emerging from a five-year drought last year, much of the southern two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry. This means that when they are started they have the potential to burn bigger and longer than in the past decades. In light of the devastating Northern California fire, "Los Angeles Fire Chief County Daryl Osby told Associated Press.

Compiled by Globe staff

Associated Press, with a report from Tamsin McMahon