Camp Fire victim IDd as Paradise woman, 96
Butte County officials on Friday released the name of one of the 11 Camp Fire victims who had not been identified since the November blaze.
Paradise resident Ethel Colleen Riggs, 96, was identified as a victim after officials ruled out other possibilities. Her remains were badly burned, making a DNA match difficult.
Riggs lived in a retirement community and, when her power went out on the day of the fire, couldn’t get her car out of the garage, her grandson told The Chronicle in November.
Riggs had lived in Paradise for 30 years, her daughter, Meriel Wisotsky, said in an interview Friday. For the past 18 years, she lived on her own after her husband, John, died in 2001. She was a factory workerturned-homemaker and enjoyed traveling, volunteering and reading. Riggs had two children and three grandchildren.
“The only continent she never managed to land on was Antarctica,” Wisotsky said. “She was always looking for a new way to stimulate her mind, new things to do and new people to meet.”
Wisotsky, 65, said the official identification from Butte County comes as a relief after six months of managing her affairs without closure.
“Now I’m at the point where I can just think about the good memories I have of my mom,” she said.
Officials have positively identified 75 of the 85 killed in California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire. Of the 10 people left, eight have been tentatively identified and two have not been identified, officials said.
The Camp Fire sparked on Nov. 8, ravaging the towns of Paradise, Magalia and Concow, and became fully contained Nov. 25. It destroyed 18,804 buildings, including about 14,000 homes. It burned 153,336 acres. Ashley McBride is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ashley. mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Ashleynmcb