The horrific scale
of death and destruction of California’s wildfires is coming into focus, with 35 confirmed dead, hundreds still missing and thousands of homes destroyed.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Even as 17 wildfires continue to rage throughout Northern California, the horrific scale of death and destruction is coming into focus:
Thirty-five confirmed dead, many of them elderly. One victim was 14.
Hundreds still missing Friday.
And at least 5,700 homes and businesses destroyed, including whole neighborhoods reduced to smoldering rubble.
“We all have suffered a trauma here, and we’re going to be a long time in recovering from this incident,” Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey said.
As authorities continue assessing the damage from the most devastating spate of wildfires to strike the state in modern history, the blazes are still burning — with winds expected to return Friday night, breathing dangerous new life into the deadly arc of flames.
Firefighters have made some gains with several fires that are no longer expected to grow. But the blazes, including the deadliest in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, were still uncontained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The agency said that some 220,000 acres have been scorched across the state — a collective area bigger than the city of Dallas — as “red flag” conditions spread the fires with frightening speed.
More than 9,000 firefighters are attacking the flames.
“The emergency is not over, and we continue to work at it, but we are seeing some great progress,” said the state’s emergency operations director, Mark Ghilarducci.
Over the past 24 hours, crews arrived from Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and Washington. Other teams came from as far away as Australia and Canada.
The influx of outside help offered critical relief to firefighters who have been working with little rest since the blazes started.
“It’s like pulling teeth to get firefighters and law enforcement to disengage from what they are doing out there,” Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann said. “They are truly passionate about what they are doing to help the public, but resources are coming in. That’s why you are seeing the progress we’re making.”
In addition to manpower, equipment deliveries have poured in. Crews were using 840 fire engines from across California and an additional 170 sent from around the country.
The death toll was expected to keep rising. Individual fires have killed more people than any one of the current blazes, but no collection of simultaneous fires in California ever led to so many deaths, authorities said.
Dozens of search-andrescue personnel at a mobile home park in Santa Rosa carried out the grim task Friday of searching for the remains of residents who did not escape in time. Fire tore through Santa Rosa early Monday, leaving little time for people to flee.
Officers recovered bone fragments from one person Friday and there was a “high probability” they would find more, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Thompson said.