Already the most destructive wildfire in California history, the Camp Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills has become the state’s third deadliest — killing 23 people in three days, with more than 100 people unaccounted for in a charred swath of land larger than Detroit.
Although the fire had been 25 percent contained by Sunday, high temperatures and gusty winds made the weather optimal for the Northern California fire to spread for at least another day.
As of Saturday, the Camp Fire had destroyed nearly 7,000 structures in and around the mountain town of Paradise and has been blamed for most of the last week’s fire deaths. Two people were also killed as a result of separate fires in Southern California.
But the bulk of firefighter resources were focused on the Camp Fire, the deadliest in the state since 1991. The 1933 Griffith Park wildfire in Los Angeles County killed 29.
“This event was the worst-case scenario,” Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said, referring to the Camp Fire. “It’s the event that we have feared for a long time.” Honea, who is also the county coroner, told the Associated Press that he had to add a fifth search-and-recovery team to help find bodies. Authorities have not released the names of victims and have continued to search for more.
Read more on this from the Washington Post at https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/11/camp-fire-kills-becoming-californias-deadliest-wildfire-since/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e333351ea874.