Death toll in California fire rises to 87
The death toll in northern California's so-called 'Camp Fire' rose further, officials said late Saturday, adding the blaze was almost fully under control.
(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 9, 2018, a firefighter is silhouetted by a burning home along Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) during the Woolsey Fire in Malibu, California. – Climate change is already hurting the US and global economies and its effects will get worse unless more drastic action is taken to cut carbon emissions, a major US government report warned on Friday, November 23, 2018. “Without substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century,” said the latest edition of the National Climate Assessment. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP)
Cal Fire, the state fire authority, said in its latest bulletin that the fire – which broke out on November 8 – was 98 percent contained.
The office of the Butte County Sheriff said that 249 people remained unaccounted for – a steep drop from 474 missing reported earlier in the day.
It added that only 54 of the fatalities have been identified.
More than 153,000 acres have been torched, with nearly 14,000 homes and hundreds of other structures destroyed by the powerful blaze, California’s deadliest and most destructive fire ever.
Previously the death toll had been put at 84.
Rain that soaked the Butte County fire area in the past days helped douse the remaining flames, but also made it more difficult for crews searching for bodies.
“Areas experiencing significant rainfall following a wildfire are at risk for debris flow and flash flooding,” the Sheriff’s office warned.
Cal Fire said that the remaining uncontained fire “is isolated in steep and rugged terrain where it is unsafe for firefighters to access due to the heavy rains”.
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