Death toll rises as California fires rage
UNITED STATES: As the number of people confirmed dead in Northern California fires rose to 17, officials warned yesterday that the toll could rise as multiple fires scorched upward of 40,000 hectares.
Sonoma County alone has received about 200 reports of missing people since Sunday night, and sheriff’s officials have located 45 of those people, said Sonoma County spokeswoman Maggie Fleming.
The majority of the fatalities are from Sonoma County, where huge swaths of the city of Santa Rosa were levelled in flames from the Tubbs fire.
As firefighters continued to battle one of the worst firestorms in California history, federal officials vowed to help.
Vice President Mike Pence said in a visit to California’s emergency management headquarters that President Donald Trump has approved a ‘‘major disaster declaration’’ for California.
‘‘Let me first say our hearts and the hearts of every American go out to the families of those who’ve lost their lives. It’s heartbreaking to think that many of the fallen represent our most vulnerable; in some cases senior citizens who simply were not able to escape the flames that overcame their homes,’’ he said.
The two biggest blazes – the Tubbs fire and Napa County’s Atlas Peak fire – were uncontained, he said. Firefighters are hoping that winds will lessen enough to allow crews to get a handle on the fires.
‘‘Though our containment numbers haven’t gone up just yet, we’ve at least been able to hold these fires and keep them at their current acreage,’’ Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
About 20,000 people evacuated their homes on Monday and Tuesday and there were additional evacuations yesterday.
‘‘Overnight, the wind that had fanned these fires had really decreased, and that gave us an opportunity to really take a stand against these fires,’’ Berlant said early yesterday.
But the cool and quiet of night did not stymie the progress of the Atlas fire, which stretched across the hills east of Napa and sparked a chain of more fires to the west.
Fire behaviour specialist Jon Heggie told crews heading out to the fire line to be prepared for the fires to turn north and east into dry brush ‘‘with 80 to 90 per cent probability of ignition.’’
As of Tuesday, the 16 fires in Northern California had destroyed at least 1500 homes, businesses and other structures. –