Deadliest wildfire kills at least 42
PARADISE, California - The death toll from a huge blaze in northern California has risen to at least 42, making it the deadliest wildfire in state history.
On Monday, 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, adding that more than 200 people remain missing in and around the town of Paradise.
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 wildfire in the United States 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 100 km/h 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 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 on Monday.
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.
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, said 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 blaze has consumed around 37,600 hectares, destroyed an estimated 370 structures and was 30 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
Afp - Xinhua - Reuters
(China Daily 11/14/2018 page12)
