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By Noel Randewich and Sharon Bernstein
PARADISE, Calif. (Reuters) – Firefighter convoys crossed the city of Paradise, California, northern California on Tuesday to fight the still-dead parts of the country's deadliest and most destructive devastating fire. history, which extends over 8,000 acres.
Teams of workers using chain saws have cleared power lines and other obstacles in the street, while forensic teams have mobilized to resume their search for dead remains in the charred wreckage. the town of 27,000 inhabitants of Butte County, almost completely consumed by a fire last Thursday. hours after the fire broke out.
The "campfire" continued to rage in Butte County, about 280 km north of San Francisco, and reached 125,000 acres (50,500 hectares), more than four times the size of the city. Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. It was 30% content.
The death toll rises to 42 people, the largest number recorded from a California forest fire. More than 7,600 houses and other structures were burned, a historic record.
Some 228 people are still missing and classified as missing. Officials have asked their relatives and friends to check the evacuation shelters and call centers in the hope of being able to locate many of them.
On a residential street in paradise lined with burnt houses, a team of 10 first aid and court-ordered workers dressed in suits and white helmets used a dog to search for victims.
"Look for skulls, big bones," said a forensic scientist who used metal poles and his hands to search the remains of a home.
Another found a firearm and marked it for later removal.
On the other side of the street, two red rescue workers drove a dog around a broken down car and across the foundations of a home.
One hundred and fifty search and recovery personnel were expected to arrive in the area on Tuesday, reinforcing 13 coroners' recovery teams in the fire zone, said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.
The sheriff asked the US Army for three teams of the portable morgue, a "mortuary" crew, corpses dog units to locate human remains, and three groups of forensic anthropologists.
Some 52,000 people are still under evacuation orders and 8,700 firefighters from 17 states are fighting forest fires.
In southern California, two people died in the "Woolsey Fire", which destroyed 435 structures and displaced about 200,000 people in the mountains and hills near the Malibu coast in southern California. in the west of Los Angeles.
Woolsey's fire was contained at 35 percent, up from 30 percent a day earlier, said Cal Fire.
Fires in Los Angeles and Ventura counties burned 39,000 hectares, about the size of Denver, and the largest in 100 years, officials said, even though tankers lost nearly half a million dollars. One million gallons (37,000 hectoliters) fireproof and 22 helicopters dropped 1.5 million gallons of water on the fire.
"It's really heartbreaking," said Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell at a press conference. "Hundreds of houses are still in ruins, we understand perfectly that every house is a house."
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said he hoped the precipitation forecast next week would be useful, although it could also cause landslides.
Four communities have been reopened to previously evacuated residents, a sign that firefighters were taking over, Osby said.
"We are doing everything in our power to allow people to go home when they are safe," Osby said. "I can not even understand that I've been evacuated for so long, but we'll let you go home when it's safe."
President Donald Trump said Monday night that a major disaster existed, putting federal funds at the disposal of the local population and government agencies in Butte, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The promise came two days after Trump attributed the brush fires to the mismanagement of the forest, tweeting "Remedy now, or more Fed payments!"
He took a more sympathetic tone when addressing the White House on Tuesday.
"We mourn the lives of those who are lost and we pray for the victims," said Trump, thanking the first responders. "We will do everything in our power to support and protect our fellow citizens from danger."
For a graph on fatal fires in California, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Plpuui
(Report by Noel Randewich and Sharon Bernstein, Writing by Daniel Trotta, Edited by Steve Orlofsky and Lisa Shumaker)
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