PARADISE (California) • Rescue teams sifted through razed homes and vehicles yesterday for the remains of victims in the California town of Paradise, as the number of those missing in the US state's deadliest wildfire spiked to 630.
At least 63 people were killed in and around Paradise, which was virtually incinerated by the Camp Fire, a blaze that erupted on Nov 8 in the Sierra foothills 280km north of San Francisco.
The fire is among the deadliest to have hit the United States over the last century.
The authorities attribute the death toll partly to the speed with which flames raced through the town of 27,000, driven by wind and fuelled by desiccated scrub and trees.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said on Thursday that the remains of seven further victims had been located since Wednesday's tally of 56. The number of missing jumped to 630 people late on Thursday from 130 the previous night.
Many of those initially reported as missing have been found alive, so Mr Honea emphasised on Thursday that the list of missing would fluctuate as new people were reported missing or others turned up safe.
Paradise resident Wayne Williamson lost his home, car and belongings in the fire and is now looking for his brother Ronald Crawford, who has not been heard from since before the fire.
"He hasn't showed up yet and I think he would by now," Mr Williamson told KRCR TV.
Many of those listed as missing are over the age of 65. Local officials and realtors have sold Paradise as an ideal place to retire.
Relatives of retired US Navy veteran David Marbury, 66, are waiting to hear from him. No one has managed to speak with him since the wildfire began, and relatives' phone calls have gone directly to his voicemail.
Mr Marbury moved to Paradise a few years ago because he liked to be by himself, relatives said. On Thursday, Mr Marbury's landlord confirmed to relatives that his duplex in Paradise had burned down.
Nearly 12,000 homes and buildings burned hours after the blaze erupted, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. Thousands more structures remain threatened as firefighters, many from distant states, labour to contain and suppress the flames.
Sheriff Honea has asked relatives of the missing to submit DNA samples to hasten identification of the dead. But he added that some of those unaccounted for may never be identified.
There have been other smaller blazes in southern California, including the Woolsey Fire, which has been linked to three fatalities and has destroyed at least 500 structures near the Malibu coast west of Los Angeles.
Scientists say two seasons of devastating wildfires in California are ascribable to drought that is symptomatic of climate change.
Two electric utilities say they sustained equipment problems close to the origins of the blazes around the time they were reported.
Republican US President Donald Trump is due to visit the fire zones today to meet displaced residents. Critics say Mr Trump politicised the fires by blaming them, without supporting evidence, on forest mismanagement by California, a largely Democratic state.
And public schools in Sacramento 150km to the south, and as far away as San Francisco and Oakland, cancelled classes yesterday because of poor air quality.
REUTERS
