Almost 1300 people missing in California wildfires
PARADISE, The number of people missing after California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire jumped yesterday to 1276, despite authorities finding hundreds of people who scattered when the Camp Fire tore through the mountain town of Paradise.
Forensic teams had recovered the remains of five more victims, bringing the death toll to at least 76, authorities said. Sixtythree of them had been tentatively identified, pending DNA confirmation.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said much of the increase in the number of missing was due to his office’s efforts to comb through a backlog of emergency calls that came in during the first hours of the fire on November 8. Officials were sifting through the list of missing persons for duplications and people who fled. Some 380 people had been taken off the list since Saturday, he said.
‘‘A lot of progress is being made with regard to that, but this is still raw data,’’ he said.
The sheriff spoke after President Donald Trump visited Paradise, the small community that was home to nearly 27,000 people in the Sierra foothills, 280km north of San Francisco, before being all but consumed by the blaze.
‘‘Nobody could have thought this would ever happen,’’ Trump told reporters in the town. ‘‘This is very sad to see.’’
Trump has blamed the recent spate of fires on forest mismanagement. Asked whether the scenes of devastation had changed his view on climate change, he said: ‘‘No. I have a strong opinion. I want great climate and we’re going to have that and we’re going to have forests that are very safe . . . ‘‘We’ve got to take care of the floors, you know the floors of the forest. It’s very important.’’
He also alluded to Finland yesterday, saying that country focuses ‘‘on raking and cleaning. They don’t have any problem and when it is . . . I know everyone is looking at that.’’
The reference to Finland puzzled some, because its ecosystem is so different than that of California.
Authorities attribute the high death toll from the blaze, dubbed the Camp Fire, partly to the speed with which it raced through the town with little warning, driven by howling winds and fuelled by droughtdesiccated scrub and trees.
The precise causes of the Camp fire and the Woolsey fire, near the Malibu coast, are under investigation, but electric utili ties have reported equipment problems in the vicinity of both blazes around the time they erupted.
More than a week later, firefighters have managed to carve containment lines around 55% of the Camp fire’s perimeter.
Hundreds of evacuees are being housed in 14 emergency shelters in churches, schools and community centres around the region, and hundreds are camping out in tents and cars. More than 46,000 people remained under evacuation orders, authorities said.
The president also toured devastated areas around Malibu and Thousand Oaks yesterday. The Camp fire, in northern California, and the Woolsey fire, in the south, have burned more than 100,000ha and destroyed more than 10,000 structures.
Trump’s visit drew a backlash from some Southern California residents.
As the Woolsey fire raged in Malibu, Carrie Armstrong (57) of Topanga Canyon, said she read Trump’s tweet that blamed the wildfires on poor forest management and misappropriation of funds and found them highly insensitive.
‘‘He’s still the president,’’ she said. ‘‘He shouldn’t speak so badly about people [in crisis]. He hates California.’’
Armstrong said she spent six days holed up in her niece’s apartment with her cat and dog. She returned, grateful to be alive with her home still standing. The worry has turned to anger as she thinks about Trump visiting her home state.
‘‘He’s only visiting because he got so much flak and negative feedback’’ from his tweet, she said. — Reuters/TNS