“Only bones and fragments”
USA - In northern California, sheriff’s investigators have begun the agonizing task of scouring the wreckage of the most destructive fire in state records, in search of remains of the dead. By Saturday, the death toll in and around the destroyed town of Paradise had reached 23, but it seemed likely to climb.
Two more people were confirmed to have died in the south of the state, around Los Angeles in the Woolsey fire, which has ravaged vast areas. It was only 5 percent contained on Saturday night and a red flag warning was put into effect for yesterday morning through tomorrow, as officials expected dry winds to worsen considerably. A total of 83,275 acres had burned, but officials still had no updates on the number of structures destroyed. In the north, with the fire still raging around Paradise, Butte county sheriff Kory Honea said the county was bringing in a fifth search and recovery team. An anthropology team from California State University, Chico was assisting, because in some cases ‘the only remains we are able to find are bones or bone fragments’. “This weighs heavy on all of us”, Honea said. “Myself and especially those staff members who are out there doing what is important work but certainly difficult work.”
The death toll made the fire the third-deadliest on record in the state, another statistic for a blaze now logged at 164 sq miles that has cost at least $8.1m to fight so far, said Steve Kaufmann, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Entire neighborhoods were leveled, destroying more than 6,700 buildings, almost all of them homes. The Paradise business district was destroyed by a blaze that threatened to explode again with the fury that largely incinerated the foothill town. More firefighters were headed to the area, with wind gusts of up to 50mph expected through today, raising the risk of conditions similar to those when the fire started on Thursday, the National Weather Service said. In southern California, fires tore through Malibu mansions and workingclass suburban homes. State officials put the number of people forced from their homes statewide at more than 200,000. Evacuations included the city of Malibu, home to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Back in Paradise, the air clogged with smoke, residents who defied an evacuation order for all of Paradise, a town of 27,000 founded in the 1800s, donned masks as they surveyed ravaged neighborhoods. Some cried when they saw nothing was left.
(The Guardian)