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Friday, November 16, 2018 – 8:12 pm
At least 63 people were killed in and around Paradise by the camp fire that erupted a week ago in the foothills of the Sierra 280 km north of San Francisco. The fire is one of the deadliest forest fires in the United States since 2000.
Authorities attribute the death toll to the speed with which the flames passed through the city of 27,000 people, driven by the wind and fueled by desiccated bushes and trees.
Nearly 12,000 homes and buildings burned hours after the fire, announced the California Department of Forests and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The fire left a ghostly expanse of empty lots covered with ashes and dotted with debris.
Thousands of additional structures are still threatened by firefighters, including many far-away states, who are working to contain and suppress the flames.
The revised list of 630 missing persons is up from the 297 listed Thursday by the Butte County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff Kory Honea said Thursday that the remains of seven victims have been found since the countdown of 56 Wednesday. Nearly 300 missing persons were found alive and the list of missing people would fluctuate, he said.
The sheriff asked relatives of the missing to submit DNA samples to hasten the identification of the dead. But he said some of these missing people may never be identified.
There were other smaller fires in southern California, including the Woolsey fire, linked to three deaths and having destroyed at least 500 structures near the Malibu coast, at the same time. 39, west of Los Angeles.
Scientists say two seasons of devastating fires in California are linked to drought, which is symptomatic of climate change.
Two power companies reported having equipment problems near the flames at the time they were reported.
The White House announced Thursday that President Donald Trump intended to go Saturday to the fire zones to meet with displaced residents. Critics say Trump has politicized the fires by blaming poor forest management.
Cal Fire said that 40% of the perimeter of the campfire is contained, which represents an increase of 35%, even as the fire footprint has increased from 809 hectares to 57,060 hectares. Woolsey's fire is 57% under control.
The Sacramento Public Schools and districts located 145 km to the south, and as far away as San Francisco and Oakland, have announced that Friday's courses would be canceled due to the deterioration of air quality.
Many who have survived the flames but lost their homes have stayed with friends or relatives or in shelters of the American Red Cross.
REUTERS
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