Seeking remains in fiery disaster
PARADISE, Calif. — Ernest Foss was a musician who gave lessons out of his home when he lived in San Francisco, where an amplifier that ran the length of a wall served as the family’s living room couch. Carl Wiley refurbished tires for Michelin. Jesus Fernandez, known as “Zeus,” was described as a loving father and loyal friend.
They were among the first victims identified in the aftermath of the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California history, an inferno blamed for at least 48 deaths, with authorities ramping up the search Tuesday for still more souls.
The flames all but obliterated the Northern California town of Paradise,
WILDFIRES
population 27,000, and ravaged surrounding areas last Thursday. About 7,700 homes were destroyed.
The exact number of missing was unclear, but many friends and relatives of those living in the fire zone said they hadn’t heard from loved ones. Some went to shelters looking for the missing.
Efforts were underway to bring in mobile morgues, cadaver dogs, a rapid DNA analysis system for identifying victims and an additional 150 search-and-rescue personnel on top of 13 teams already looking for remains — a grim indication that the death toll would almost surely rise.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea’s office has identified four of the victims, publicly naming three.
Five days after the blaze, more than 1,000 people were at more than a half-dozen shelters set up for evacuees.
Before the Paradise tragedy, the deadliest single fire on record in California was a 1933 blaze in Griffith Park in Los Angeles that killed 29.
In Southern California, firefighters made progress against a massive blaze that has killed two people in star-studded Malibu and destroyed well over 400 structures.
The flames roared to life again in a mountainous wilderness area Tuesday, sending up a huge plume of smoke near the community of Lake Sherwood. Still, firefighters made gains. The number of people evacuated was down by about half from the day before, to around 100,000, authorities said, and the fire was partially contained.
The Woolsey Fire grew to 150 square miles Tuesday, but containment also increased to 35 percent. That fire has burned more than 80 percent of National Park Service land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The number of homes and other structures destroyed by the fire reached 435. Damage assessments were continuing, with crews having to gain access to canyon areas on foot.
Gov. Jerry Brown said California is “pretty well maxed out” from fighting the deadly wildfires, and he expressed gratitude for help from surrounding states and the federal government. He said the state is doing everything possible to prevent fires, but “some things only God can do.”