According to the sheriff of Northern California, 14 additional bodies were found, bringing to 23 the number of deaths in a forest fire

PARADISE, Calif. (AP) – Authorities have called a mobile DNA lab and anthropologists to help identify the dead, while research continued for victims of the country's most destructive wildfire. California history. The fire record at both ends of the state was 25 Sunday and is expected to increase.

In total, more than 8,000 firefighters fought in three major wildfires in northern and southern California on fires of nearly 400 square miles (1,040 square kilometers) and returning torch winds.

The worst fires occurred in northern California, where the flames reduced Paradise's 27,000 population to a smoking ruin a few days ago and continued to rage in surrounding communities. Only the number of people killed in the fire, at least 23, makes it the third most deadly ever recorded in this state.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the county was calling on more rescuers and consulting with anthropologists at California State University in Chico, saying "in some cases we can only find bones or bone fragments ".

"It weighs heavily on all of us," Honea said.

The authorities also introduced a DNA laboratory and encouraged missing family members to submit samples to help identify the dead after the fire destroyed more than 6,700 buildings, almost all of them houses.

The sheriff's department has drawn up a list of 110 missing persons, but the authorities have expressed the hope that many of them would be safe but did not have a mobile phone or any other means of contacting their loved ones. Firefighters gained modest ground overnight against the fire, which rose slightly to settle at 170 square miles (440 square kilometers) compared to the previous day but was under control at 25% , against 20% previously, according to Cal Fire, a public security agency.

But Cal Fire spokesman Bill Murphy warned that gusty winds expected Monday morning could cause "explosive fire behavior".

Two people were also found dead in a forest fire in Southern California, where the flames devastated the mansions of Malibu and the working-class suburbs of Los Angeles. The badly burned bodies were found in a long residential alley in Malibu, where Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian West, Guillermo del Toro and Martin Sheen were forcibly evicted.

The flames also besieged Thousand Oaks, the southern California city, in mourning after the massacre of 12 people during a shootout at a country music bar on Wednesday night.

Fire officials said Sunday morning that the largest of the two fires in the region, the one in Malibu and surrounding areas, reached 337 km2 and was controlled to 10%. But the strong, dry winds of Santa Ana that were blowing from the interior to the coast came back after a lull of one day, fueling the flames.

The number of structures lost in the two fires in southern California has reached nearly 180, authorities said.

In all, a quarter of a million people were under an eviction order across the state.

Governor Jerry Brown said he was asking President Donald Trump for a statement following a major disaster, which would give victims the right to benefit from crisis counseling, housing assistance and other services. unemployed, as well as legal assistance.

Drought, the mild climate attributed to climate change, and the construction of houses deeper into the forest have led to longer and more destructive forest fire seasons in California. While California was officially out of a five year drought last year, much of the northern two-thirds of the state is unusually dry.

In Paradise, a city founded in the 1800s, locals who remained on the scene trying to save their property or who managed to return despite the evacuation order found cars and houses cremated.

Wearing masks because the air was still charged with smoke, people avoided the metal that had melted into cars or jet skis by inspecting their ravaged neighborhoods. Some cried when they saw that there was nothing left.

Jan McGregor, 81, has returned to his small two-bedroom house in Paradise with the help of his grandson's firefighter. He found his house leveled – a large metal safe and the pipes of his septic system are the only recognizable traces. The safe was punctured by bullet holes caused by guns inside that exploded under extreme heat.

He lived in paradise for nearly 80 years and moved there in 1939, when the city had only 3,000 inhabitants and was nicknamed Poverty Ridge.

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

McGregor said he probably would not rebuild: "I have nothing here to go back."

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Associated press editors Daisy Nguyen, Olga R. Rodriguez and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco contributed to this report. Darlene Superville contributed from Paris.

Read more:

"Nothing here": back to the rubble in northern California

Southern California Fires Burn Mobile Homes and Malibu Homes