Rain dampens hunt for Calif. fire victims

Rain began falling on Northern California on Wednesday, a welcome development for air quality and containment of the deadly Camp Fire but bad news for workers still searching for remains.

Kimberly Defreitas, a Paradise resident who lost her house in the monster wildfire, called the incoming wet weather “a double-edged sword.”

The 60-year-old grandmother said she hopes it will clear the smoke-clogged air and help firefighters boost their previously reported 80% containment level. But she saw serious downsides.

“I'm worried the rain is just going to make things worse. It's going to make things toxic. It's all going to flow into Lake Oroville and make it a toxic mess,” she told the Daily News.

Defreitas sounded weary as she described visiting the charred remains of her property for the first time Tuesday.

“Our house is a total loss. It's just devastating. The destruction from the fire just went on and on. The smoke is still horrific. The chaos is crazy,” she said.

“The air was so horrible. Maybe the rain is going to help, but it will be a mess. It's going to be years of recovering from this,” she said. “It sickened me how out of control this got.”

Overall, the Camp Fire already has destroyed more than 13,000 homes and scorched an area about the size of Chicago.

The official death toll was 81 people as of Wednesday morning. The number of missing climbed by 171 on Tuesday to reach 870.

Defreitas said she was relieved to find out Wednesday that two women she knows and feared were missing had been found. “It was really weighing on me. We went back into lower Paradise yesterday looking for the two ladies and just this morning we found out they're okay. We're so glad to hear it. I want to thank those who have reached out and helped us,” she said.

In Southern California, residents near hillside areas burned by the recent Woolsey Fire stacked sandbags as they prepared for possible downpours that could trigger mudslides.

The 151-square-mile Woolsey Fire was almost entirely contained Wednesday after three people were killed, 1,643 structures destroyed and 364 damaged.

In Paradise, recovery teams raced against the clock as they sifted through ash and debris about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco.

“The task is arduous,” said Rick Crawford with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “And the possibility exists that some people may never be found.”