Huge California fire contained
Grim search for bodies goes on; at least 85 dead
Fire-frazzled Northern California finally got some good news Sunday: An epic blaze that ravaged the countryside, killed dozens and wiped out thousands of homes was 100 percent contained.
The Camp fire – the nation’s deadliest in a century – was contained within 153,336 acres, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
The wildfire, which ignited in a rural area Nov. 8 before consuming the town of Paradise and roaring through nearby communities, has left a staggering toll. At least 85 people have been killed; 249 are still listed as missing. Nearly 19,000 buildings, most of them homes, have been destroyed.
Thousands of people packing emergency shelters, hotels and campsites have lives in limbo, uncertain whether they will have communities to return to. The blaze has destroyed more structures than the state’s other seven worst wildfires combined.
Fire crews battling the blaze got a key boost last week in the form of the first winter storm to hit the state this year. About 7 inches of rain fell over the burn area for three days without causing major mudslides, said Hannah ChandlerCooley of the National Weather Service.
The wet weather helped extinguish hot spots and enabled responders to ramp up the search for additional victims, particularly in Paradise, a retirement community with a population of 27,000.
On Sunday, crews continued sifting through muddy ash for human remains in and around the devastated town. Fire officials fear the death toll will climb as evacuees returning home find bodies in the singed-out shells of their homes.
Search crews have pressed on despite the grim task. “The guys will never say it’s hard,” crew member David Kang said. “But it is.”
Los Angeles County sheriff ’s officials said they were in the last phase of repopulating Malibu and unincorporated areas of the county. At the height of the fire, 250,000 fled their homes.
Three people died, and 1,643 buildings, most of them homes, were destroyed, officials said.