Blaze toll climbs

PARADISE: MORE MORGUE TEAMS SEARCH FOR BODIES

Hundreds still missing as killer fire destroys more than 7 000 homes.

Paradise

Search teams have recovered the remains of 42 people killed by a fierce wildfire that largely incinerated the town of Paradise in northern California, marking the greatest loss of life from a wild land blaze in state history, authorities said.

The latest death toll, up from 29 tallied over the weekend, was announced by Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea after authorities found the bodies of 13 more victims of the devastating blaze, dubbed the Camp Fire.

The fire already ranked as the most destructive on record in California in terms of property losses, having consumed more than 7 100 homes and other structures since igniting on Thursday in Butte County’s Sierra foothills, north of San Francisco.

Honea said 228 people were officially listed as missing, but added that his office had received requests to check on the wellbeing of more than 1 500 people who had not been heard from by loved ones. Of those cases, 231 individuals had turned up safe, he said.

Authorities made clear, however, that they are bracing for the number of fatalities to climb.

In addition to 13 coroner-led recovery teams, 150 search-and-recovery personnel arrived yesterday, Honea said.

The sheriff said he also has requested three portable morgue teams from the US military, a “disaster mortuary” crew and an unspecified number of cadaver dog units to assist in the search.

Three groups of forensic anthropologists were also called in to help.

The bulk of the destruction and loss of life occurred in and around the town of Paradise, where flames reduced most of the buildings to ash and rubble on Thursday night, just hours after the blaze erupted. About 52 000 people remained under evacuation orders, the sheriff said.

The 42 confirmed fatalities marked the highest death toll in history from a single California wildfire, Honea said, far surpassing the previous record of 29 lives lost in 1933 from the Griffith Park blaze in Los Angeles.

Authorities reported two more people perished over the weekend in a separate blaze, the Woolsey Fire, that has destroyed 435 structures and displaced 200 000 people near the Malibu coast,.

President Donald Trump approved California Governor Jerry Brown’s request for a major disaster declaration

Picture: EPA DOUSED. A helicopter drops water on brush burning near Pepperdine University as the Woolsey Fire continues to burn in Malibu, California. Fires are fuelled by dry conditions and strong Santa Ana winds.