The state of
Wildfire toll at 21 & 200 missing Meghan’s old home faces ruin
SHELLSHOCKED residents are dwarfed by a massive cloud of smoke from deadly wildfires which have killed 31 people in California.
More than 200 people are still missing as three separate blazes continue to ravage the state, officials have said.
One was scorching a path to where the Duchess of Sussex grew up.
At least seven people burned to death in their vehicles while trying to escape the Camp Fire. They were among 27,000 packed on to a four-lane road which was the only route out of the town of Paradise which was not blocked.
Survivors told how they sat in traffic as flames licked at their car doors, while others fled on foot carrying pets and valuables.
Nichole Jolly, 34, a nurse at the hospital in Paradise, said her trousers caught on fire as she ran up the road.
She recalled: “I’m breathing in the hottest air I’ve ever been in. My throat is bloodied, I’m about to hit the ground but the bottom of my shoes were melting. I put my hand out and prayed to God, ‘Please, don’t let me die like this.’”
The fire has destroyed 6,453 homes and 260 commercial buildings and is only 25% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than 300,000 Duchess of Sussex still has friends in the area