Butte County officials said they found the remains of six more victims in the deadliest fire in California's history, bringing the official death toll for the Camp Fire to 48, according to NBC News.
All six sets of remains were found in the area of Paradise, California, on Tuesday.
The town has been decimated by the Camp Fire after the blaze quickly took over the town on Thursday burning through more than 7,6000 homes and 260 commercial structures, making it also the most destructive fire in the state's history.
The Camp Fire broke out early on Thursday morning in Butte County, an hour north of Sacramento, but brought particular devastation to the town of Paradise, which had a population of 26,000.
Butte County Sheriff-Coroner Kory L. Honea said he requested 100 National Guard troops to work in tandem with the local officials in searching for human remains.
The Camp Fire had burned through nearly 130,000 acres and 35 percent contained.
Search teams were using cadaver dogs to try and search through the massive fields of rubble and ash, with residents gathering at nearby shelters to comprise lists of the dozens still missing after the fire ripped through their communities.
But officials said they were facing a number of issues in their search, including poor cellphone reception, a lack of access to many of the burned-out areas, and the fact that many people are spread around the region staying in shelters, hotels, with friends and family, or just living out of their vehicles and have been unable to get in touch with their loved ones.
"We want to be able to cover as much ground as quickly as we possibly can," Honea said.
He also said once the search is done and people are allowed to return to Paradise, they could find more remains.
"I know that that's a very difficult thing to think about, but that's the difficult situation that we find ourselves in today,” Honea said.
The Camp Fire became the deadliest in California history after surpassing the Griffith Park Fire in 1933 which killed 29 people, according to Cal Fire.
Cal Fire Division Chief David Hawks, who is also the fire chief of Paradise, said he saw two ambulances transporting people from the fire catch fire.
He said the fire was creating so much ash and snow, it resembled a blizzard as they attempted to gather crowds of survivors into a house to ride out the fire.
"What I told everyone: ‘We’re going to ride the fire out here and we need to protect this home,’ Hawks said Tuesday. "You know, this is our Fort Knox, basically."
Paramedics worked to remove debris and dry materials from around the house, with Hawks recalling how some were on the phone with their family members asking "if I thought they were going to die here."
"And I told them, I don’t believe that we are going to die here,” he said. “This is a very serious situation but I think if we follow my direction, we’ll ride the fire out here."
They were later joined with two members of a search and rescue team until the road was cleared for them to make it back to Feather River Hospital to wait out the remaining fire.
"I was doing my job,” Hawks said. “There was a lot of lives saved by a lot of people that day — not only myself, but by a lot of people.”
Hundreds of firefighters were also battling the Woolsey Fire, which has killed at least two people since breaking out on Thursday afternoon in Malibu.
That fire has burned through more than 96,300 acres and destroyed at least 430 homes and other structures, but a Cal Fire official said that number is likely to dramatically increase when they are able to conduct full assessments.
But officials said the weather forecast for this week made them optimistic about getting the Woolsey Fire under control.
"The risk has diminished significantly," Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby told reporters midday in Thousand Oaks. "When you think about this fire several days ago, it burned from Bell Canyon to the ocean which is approximately 30 miles. So our firefighters have gotten the upper hand.”
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / John Locher
