More search teams and DNA analysis deployed to identify victims of wildfire

CALIFORNIA AUTHORITIES have set up a rapid DNA-analysis system and brought in cadaver dogs, mobile mortuaries and extra search teams in a bid to find and identify victims of the deadliest single wildfire in the US state’s history.

At least 42 people have died in the blaze. Five days after flames all but obliterated the Northern California town of Paradise, population 27,000, officials are unsure of the exact number of missing – but the death toll is almost certain to rise.

Announcing the discovery of 13 bodies, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said: “I want to recover as many remains as we possibly can, as soon as we can. Because I know the toll it takes on loved ones.”

More than a dozen coroner search-and-recovery teams looked for bodies across the apocalyptic landscape that was once Paradise, while anxious relatives visited shelters and called police and hospitals in the hope of finding loved ones.

Authorities are bringing in two mobile morgue units from the military, requesting an additional 150 search-and-rescue personnel, and seeking the set-up of a rapid DNA system to speed up the analysis of remains. Chaplains accompanied some coroner search teams that visited dozens of addresses belonging to people who were reported missing.

No cars in the driveway was a considered a good sign, one car was more ominous, while multiple burned-out vehicles provided cause for concern. State officials said the cause of the inferno is under investigation.

One landowner near where the blaze began, Betsy Ann Cowley, said Pacific Gas & Electric had notified her the day before the fire that crews needed to come onto her property because the utility’s power lines were sparking. More than 5,000 firefighters battling the blaze made gains, slowing the flames’ advance toward Oroville, a town of about 19,000 people.

The fire, which has charred 195 square miles and destroyed more than 6,400 homes, was reported to be 30 per cent contained.