Calif. wildfires have razed 7,000 buildings

Nearly 7,000 homes and structures have been destroyed in Northern California’s deadly wildfires, and the number is expected to increase, authorities said.

The estimate of homes and structures burned was boosted to 6,900 from 5,700 as fire crews re- turned to hard-hit neighborhoods and assessed remote and rural areas they could not reach earlier, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

He said most of the newly counted destroyed build- ings burned on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 — when the wildfires broke out in Northern California’s wine country.

Of the 42 deaths, 22 happened in a Sonoma County wildfire, making it the third-deadliest in California history. A 1993 Los Angeles fire that killed 29 people was the deadliest, followed by a 1991 fire in Oakland that killed 25.

California Gov. Jerry Brown late Wednesday issued an executive order to speed up recovery efforts as authorities said they had stopped the fires’ progress.

Tens of thousands of peo- ple have been allowed back home, but more than 15,000 people remained evacuated Thursday, down from a high of 100,000 last Saturday.

Brown’s order also allowed disrupted wineries to relocate tasting rooms and suspended state fees for mobile-home parks.