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Deadliest fire in California history kills 42 people
PARADISE, United States, Nov 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from a
huge blaze in northern California rose to 42 on Monday, making it the
deadliest wildfire in state history.
Thousands of firefighters spent a fifth day digging battle lines to contain
the “Camp Fire” in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains north of
Sacramento, while search teams were on a grim mission to recover the dead.
“As of today, an additional 13 human remains have been recovered, which
brings the total number to 42,” Sheriff Kory Honea told a news conference.
The blaze is “the deadliest wildland fire in California history,” Honea
said.
Although it is difficult to be certain due to inconsistencies in record
keeping and categorization, the Camp Fire appears to deadliest American
wildfire in a century — since the Cloquet Fire killed an estimated 1,000
people in Minnesota in 1918.
The Camp Fire is the largest of several infernos that have sent a quarter
of a million people fleeing their homes across the tinder-dry state, with
winds of up to 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour fanning the fast-moving
flames.
In addition to the historic loss of life, the Camp Fire blaze is also more
destructive than any other on record, having razed 6,500 homes in the town of
Paradise, effectively wiping it off the map.
More than 5,100 firefighters from as far as the states of Washington and
Texas have been working to halt the advance of the inferno as “mass casualty”
search teams backed by anthropologists and a DNA lab pick through the charred
ruins to identify remains — sometimes reduced to no more than shards of
bone.
“We’re now at a point where we’re going to bring in human remains detector
dogs, or what often are referred to as cadaver dogs,” Honea said Monday.
At least 44 people have died in fire zones in north and south California,
where acrid smoke has blanketed the sky for miles, the sun barely visible.
US President Donald Trump “declared that a major disaster exists in the
state of California and ordered federal aid to supplement state, tribal,
and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by wildfires,” the White
House said in a statement.
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The move makes aid available to the state’s fire-hit Butte, Los Angeles and
Ventura counties.
On the ground, cars caught in the flames have been reduced to scorched
metal skeletons, while piles of debris smolder where houses once stood, an
occasional brick wall or chimney remaining.
Glenn Simmons, 64, told AFP in the nearby town of Chico that he had been
sleeping in his car since Thursday, unable to find a space in a shelter.
“I was planning on maybe moving out of state, or into southern
California… Everything is burned up. I have my clothes and I have a
backpack, and that’s pretty much it,” he said.
The Camp Fire has reduced around 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) of
Butte County’s forested hills mostly to charred wasteland — an area which
hasn’t seen rainfall of more than half an inch (one centimeter) in more than
30 weeks.
It is currently 25 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.
Three firefighters have been injured in the effort to quell the blaze’s
advance.
At the southern end of the state, another three firefighters have been
injured battling the Woolsey Fire, which has devoured mansions and mobile
homes alike in the coastal celebrity resort of Malibu.
The blaze is similar in size to the Camp Fire but has been much less
destructive, and the death toll has been limited to two victims found in a
vehicle on a private driveway.
– ‘The new abnormal’ –
While some Malibu-area residents were allowed to return home late Sunday,
the city of Calabasas, just northeast of coastal Malibu, came under
evacuation orders.
“This is not the new normal, this is the new abnormal. And this new
abnormal will continue, certainly in the next 10 to 15 to 20 years,”
California Governor Jerry Brown said Sunday in a stark warning over the
likely damaging effects of climate change.
“Unfortunately, the best science is telling us that the dryness, warmth,
drought, all those things, they’re going to intensify.”
Over the weekend, the Woolsey Fire engulfed parts of Thousand Oaks, where
the community is still shell-shocked after a Marine Corps veteran shot dead
12 people in a country music bar on Wednesday.
The blaze has consumed around 93,000 acres (37,600 hectares), destroyed an
estimated 370 structures and was 30 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
Singer Miley Cyrus’s home was one of the buildings destroyed in southern
California.
“Completely devastated (sic) by the fires affecting my community. I am one
of the lucky ones. My animals and LOVE OF MY LIFE made it out safely & that’s
all that matters right now,” she tweeted.
“My house no longer stands but the memories shared with family & friends
stand strong.”
Many of the affected area’s residents own horses, and Twitter has been
flooded with messages from people seeking and offering help.
Actor James Woods, a rare political conservative in liberal Hollywood, has
made new friends by using his Twitter account to help find missing people and
getting help for pets, including horses.
The Ventura County Humane Society said it was “deeply humbled” by a
$100,000 donation from actress Sandra Bullock and her family to rescue and
care for animals evacuated from the fires.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1328 hrs