California wildfires: 31 dead, over 200 still missing
PARADISE (Reuters) — More than 200 people remained missing early yesterday in California’s deadliest and most destructive blaze on record, one of two fires raging in the state which have killed at least 31 people and forced more than a quarter of a million evacuations.
The so-called Camp Fire 40 miles northwest of Sacramento burned down more than 6,700 homes and businesses in the town of Paradise — more structures than any other wildfire recorded in California.
The fire had burned more than 111,000 acres and was 25 percent contained by late Sunday, according to officials. Its death toll of 29 now equals that of the Griffith Park Fire in 1933, the deadliest wildfire on record in California.
At least 228 people were still missing, according to Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.
In southern California, the Woolsey Fire has scorched at least 85,500 acres and destroyed 177 structures. The blaze was only 15 percent contained. At least two people have died in that fire, according to officials from the statewide agency Cal Fire.
The blaze has forced the authorities to issue evacuation orders for a quarter million people in Ventura and Los Angeles counties and beachside communities, including the Malibu beach colony.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that no Filipino was killed in the wildfires.
The DFA advised the Filipino community in California who are in the path of the raging blazes to evacuate if ordered to do so. The agency issued an advisory as it expressed its condolences to the families of the fatalities.