‘Peanuts’ creator’s home razed in California

SONOMA: California’s deadly wildfires have now claimed 31 lives with hundreds still missing and also destroyed the home of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz taking all the famous cartoonist’s memorabilia with it.

Schulz’s son, Monte Schulz, said the Santa Rosa home of his 78yearold Jean Schultz, and his brother Craig Schulz were destroyed on Monday but noone was injured.

The latest casualty figures mark the greatest loss of life from a single California wildfire event in 84 years with 3500 homes and businesses incinerated and 77,000ha scorched.

The official cause of the disaster is under investigation, but officials say power lines toppled by galeforce winds on Sunday night may have spar ked the conflagration.

A resurgence of extreme wind conditions that was forecast for Thursday failed to materialise, giving fire crews a chance to start carving containment lines around the perimeter of some of the blazes.

But fierce winds are expected to return across much of the state this weekend, and a force of 8000 firefighters in Northern California is racing to reinforce and extend buffer lines before then, officials said.

Authorities have warned that the death toll from the spate of more than 20 fires raging across eight counties for a fourth day could climb higher, with more than 400 people in Sonoma County alone still listed as missing.