The number of people killed by a massive blaze in northern California rose to 42 on Tuesday, making it the deadliest wildfire in the history of the state.
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.
At least 44 people have died in fire zones in the 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.
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.
