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By Phil Helsel
LOS ANGELES — The remains of 14 more victims were found in the ashes of the devastating Northern California wildfire, bringing the total number of deaths from the Camp Fire to 23 and statewide to at least 25, officials said Saturday.
Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said the 14 bodies were recovered in the Camp Fire, thought to be the most destructive wildfire in state history and which had already claimed the lives of nine people.
Two bodies were also found in the burn zone of the Woolsey Fire in Southern California.
“I know that members of our community who are missing loved ones are anxious, and I know that the news of us recovering bodies has to be disconcerting,” Honea said. “We are doing everything that we possibly can to identify those remains and make contact with the next of kin.”
“My heart goes out to those people. I will tell you that this weighs heavy on all of us,” he said.
The two people found dead in the Woolsey Fire zone in Malibu are being treated as fire-related deaths, but an investigation is ongoing, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Chief John Benedict. The burned bodies were discovered about 4:43 p.m. Friday inside a vehicle on a long residential driveway, the sheriff’s office said.
That 105,000-acre fire has forced the evacuation of 200,000 residents and destroyed an untold number of homes.
As fire crews took advantage Saturday of a break in high winds fueling the blazes — with resources beings sent from other states to help — officials warned that fierce Santa Ana winds are expected to return Sunday. The National Weather Service warned of “extremely critical fire weather conditions” Sunday through Tuesday.
“Don’t be lulled by a false sense of security — right now Mother Nature has given us a short reprieve. The winds are not blowing,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said Saturday afternoon.
“But we know tomorrow, Mother Nature’s going to turn her fan back on, and the winds are going to start blowing,” he said, urging the public to stay vigilant and to be prepared to evacuate if called to do so.
More than 250,000 people in California were under evacuation orders from three blazes — the Woolsey Fire burning northwest of Los Angeles, the so-called Camp Fire in Butte County, and the Hill Fire, also in Ventura County, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
The town of Paradise, population 26,000, north of Sacramento was devastated by the Camp Fire, with the town’s mayor estimating that 80 to 90 percent of homes have been destroyed. The fire, which broke out Thursday, has burned around 105,000 acres, was 20 percent contained Saturday.
Marilyn Pelletier got a knock on her door in Paradise and was told she had five minutes to leave. She grabbed her medicine bag and her small dog, and when she left “the whole sky was pink.”
“You could see the fire coming,” she said. “It was devastating. It’s horrible. The worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was just — I’m grateful I got out with my life.”
Pelletier moved to Paradise two years ago after her husband pbaded away, and bought a house in the town which was destroyed in the fire, she said.
“It’s a beautiful home — it was. It was real pretty,” Pelletier said. “I’m devastated. I’m heartbroken, I’m alone, I’m scared.”
At least 50 homes in Ventura County have been destroyed or damaged in the Woolsey Fire, said Ventura County sheriff’s Sgt. Eric Buschow.
Michelle Mussetter, who evacuated Friday night from her home in Thousand Oaks, returned Saturday to find it was destroyed.
“I just came around the corner and I’m like ‘Is that house burned?’ You could see through it,” she said. “My babies grew up in this house. I don’t know what to say.”
President Donald Trump, on a trip to France, tweeted Saturday morning about what he called poor “forest management” and suggested that was to blame for the deadly and destructive wildfires in California. Fire officials have said that the fires have been fueled by high winds.
The Pasadena Firefighters Association strongly objected to the president’s remarks, tweeting: “Mr. President, with all due respect, you are wrong. The fires in So. Cal are urban interface fires and have NOTHING to do with forest management.”
“Come to SoCal and learn the facts & help the victims,” the tweet, attributed to Scott Austin, the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters 809, read.
Trump in August made similar claims about California’s water and environmental management in relation to fires, claims which were rejected by experts.
California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, also tweeted that lives have been lost and homes burned to the ground, and it was not the time for the president to be engaging in partisanship. Later Saturday, Trump did tweet condolences to the families of the 11 people who died.
Lives have been lost. Entire towns have been burned to the ground. Cars abandoned on the side of the road. People are being forced to flee their homes. This is not a time for partisanship. This is a time for coordinating relief and response and lifting those in need up. https://t.co/sAZ3QULV8G
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 10, 2018
The Hill Fire, burning in Ventura County, was at more than 4,000 acres on Saturday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire. Some 400 structures were threatened, and the fire was 25 percent contained.
Fire officials and climate scientists have said that climate change is contributing to worsening wildfire conditions in California, raising fears that the state’s fire season may now be year-round.
“It’s really a cumulative effect in that it’s changing the landscape. You’re getting longer periods of the year when you get these fires. We’re literally burning the candle at both ends,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told NBC News on Friday.
California’s typical fire season isn’t in the summer, but rather in September and early October, which follow the dry season and come before the rainier one — a product of the area’s Mediterranean climate.
California in July saw its hottest month ever recorded with a string of record-breaking heat waves, and Swain said vegetation in the state has been left “tinder, tinder dry.”
Cal Fire said that a preliminary estimate is that the Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise destroyed more than 6,400 single-family homes and 260 commercial buildings, which would make it the most destructive wildfire in state history.
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