California wildfires death toll rises to 31
AS wildfires raged at both ends of California, officials released another grim statistic: six more dead in a swath of Northern California wiped out by fire, raising the death toll there to 29. It matched California’s record for deaths in a single fire and brought the statewide total to 31.
Another 228 remain unaccounted for as crews stepped up the search for bodies and missing people. Two people were killed in a wildfire in Southern California.
Ten search teams were working in Paradise, a town of 27,000 that was largely incinerated last week, and in surrounding communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Authorities called in a DNA lab and teams of anthropologists to help identify victims.
Statewide, 150,000 remained displaced as more than 8,000 fire crews battled wildfires that have scorched 1,040 square kilometers, with out-of-state crews continuing to arrive. Whipping winds and tinder-dry conditions threaten more areas through the rest of the week, fire officials warned.
“This is truly a tragedy that all Californians can understand and respond to,” Governor Jerry Brown said at a press briefing. “It’s a time to pull together and work through these tragedies.”
Brown, who has declared a state emergency, said California is requesting aid from the Trump administration. US President Donald Trump has blamed “poor” forest management for the fires.
Brown said federal and state governments must do more forest management but that climate change is the greater source of the problem.
“And those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we’re now witnessing, and will continue to witness in the coming years,” he said.
Drought and warmer weather attributed to climate change, and the building of homes deeper into forests have led to longer and more destructive wildfire seasons in California. While California officially emerged from a five-year drought last year, much of the northern two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry.
Firefighters battling fire with shovels and bulldozers, flame retardant and hoses expected wind gusts up to 64 kilometers per hour on Sunday.
In Southern California, firefighters beat back a new round of winds on Sunday and the fire’s growth and destruction are believed to have been largely stopped.
Malibu celebrities and mobile-home dwellers in nearby mountains were slowly learning whether their homes had been spared or reduced to ash. Two people were killed and the fire had destroyed nearly 180 structures.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby stressed there were numerous hotspots and plenty of fuel that had not yet burned, but at sunset he said there had been huge successes despite “a very challenging day.”
Celebrities whose coastal homes were damaged or destroyed in a Southern California wildfire or were forced to flee from the flames expressed sympathy and solidarity with less-famous people hurt worse by the state’s deadly blazes, and gave their gratitude to firefighters who kept them safe. Actor Gerard Butler said on Instagram that his Malibu home was “half-gone,” adding that he was “inspired as ever by the courage, spirit and sacrifice of firefighters.”
Flames also besieged Thousand Oaks, the Southern California city in mourning over the massacre of 12 people in a shooting rampage at a country music bar on Wednesday night.