"Only bones and fragments": research continues in California: a forest fire is in full swing | American News

In northern California, sheriff investigators have begun the difficult task of searching the wreckage of the most destructive fire in the state's registers for dead bodies. On Saturday, the death toll in and around the destroyed city of Paradise was 23, but the death toll is likely to increase.

Two other people reportedly died in the Woolsey fire in the south of the state, around Los Angeles, which ravaged vast areas. There was only 5% left on Saturday night and a warning under the red flag was put in place from Sunday morning to Tuesday, officials expecting a significant worsening of dry winds.

A total of 83,275 acres had burned, but officials still have not received an update on the number of structures destroyed.

Sheriff Kory Honea of ​​Butte County, in the north of the country, said the county would establish a fifth research and recovery team. An anthropology team from California State University, Chico, has helped, because in some cases, "the only remnants we can find are bones or bone fragments."

"It weighs heavily on all of us," Honea said. "Myself and especially the staff who do what is important work but certainly hard work."

Victims had not been identified, but the department had a list of 110 missing persons. Officials hoped that many of the older people on the list were elsewhere without means to contact their relatives. Honea said the agency had set up a mobile DNA lab and encouraged people with missing relatives to submit samples to facilitate the identification process.

The death toll has made the fire the third deadliest ever recorded in the state, another statistic regarding a fire that has now cost at least $ 8.1 million (164 km), said Steve Kaufmann, spokesperson for the California Department of California. Forestry and fire protection.

Whole neighborhoods have been razed, destroying more than 6,700 buildings, almost all of them houses. The business district of Paradise was destroyed by a fire that exploded again with the fury that largely cremated the city at the foot.

Other firefighters have headed for the area, with wind gusts of up to 50 mph by Monday, increasing the risk of conditions similar to those of Thursday's fire, announced the national meteorological service.

In southern California, fires have devastated Malibu mansions and working-clbad suburban homes. State officials estimate that more than 200,000 people are forced to leave their homes across the state. The evacuations took place in the city of Malibu, home to some of the biggest Hollywood stars.

Back in paradise, the air being obstructed by the smoke, locals who challenged the evacuation order of Paradise, a city of 27,000 inhabitants founded in the 1800s, put on masks during their investigations of ravaged neighborhoods. Some cried when they saw that there was nothing left.

Jan MacGregor, 81, has returned to his little two-bedroom house with the help of his grandson firefighter. He found it leveled, a large metal safe and the pipes of his septic system were the only recognizable traces. The safe was punctured by bullet holes caused by firearms that exploded in the scorching heat.

He has been living in paradise for almost 80 years. He moved there in 1939 when he declared that the city had only 3,000 inhabitants and was nicknamed Poverty Ridge. The fire was not a total surprise, he said.

"We knew that paradise was a prime target for wildfires over the years," he said. "We got them all the way to the city limits, oh yes, but nothing like that."

MacGregor said that he probably would not rebuild: "I have nothing here to come back."

Houses and other buildings were still burning and fire crews were trying to extinguish those flames, said Scott McLean, captain of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Drought, the mild climate attributed to climate change and deeper forest-dwelling construction have led to more destructive forest fire seasons that started earlier and last longer.

California has emerged from a drought that lasted five years last year, but the climate is very dry in 2018. Much of the two-thirds of the northern state, including l & # 39; 39, where the fire burns, is abnormally dry, according to an badysis of the US government.