California wildfire: Death toll hits 76 as Trump visits fire zones

World
Europe

01:55

The death toll from California's deadliest wildfire on record rose to 76 on Saturday, with over 1,200 people missing, local authorities said, as US President Donald Trump paid a visit to the state to see the impact of the tragic wildfires.

The remains of five more victims were recovered during the day as firefighters continue to battle the flames and rescue teams continue their searches, the Butte County Sheriff said.

The officer also added that the list of those missing continues to grow and has jumped to 1,276, even as over 700 people have been located alive and removed from the missing list.

The new figures came out just as Trump arrived in California to tour the devastation of the Woolsey Fire in Southern California, pledging to allocate resources to help Californians recover from the most deadly wildfire in the state's history.

“This is very sad to see, but we're all going to work together," said Trump.

US President Donald Trump speaks with a firefighter as he tours an area destroyed by a wildfire in Malibu, California on November 17, 2018./ VCG Photo

The Camp Fire broke out on the night of November 8, largely incinerating the town of Paradise, a Sierra foothills hamlet, 280 kilometers north of San Francisco, that was home to nearly 27,000 residents before the blaze.

It is now the deadliest wildfire on record in California. The previous all-time record loss of life from a single wildfire in the state was 29 in the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.

Besides the toll on human life, property losses from the fire also make it the most destructive in California's history, posing the additional challenge of providing long-term shelter for many thousands of displaced residents.

With more than 9,800 homes up in smoke, many refugees from the fire have taken up temporary residence with friends and family, while others have pitched tents or were camping out of their vehicles.

Tents and recreational vehicles belonging to Camp Fire evacuees stand in a makeshift tent city in Chico, California, US, November 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

At least 1,100 evacuees were being housed in 14 emergency shelters set up in churches, schools and community centers around the region, and more than 47,000 people remain under evacuation orders, authorities said.

Search teams with cadaver dogs, meanwhile, combed through charred, rubble-strewn expanses of burned-out neighborhoods looking for bodies.

Authorities attribute the Camp Fire's high death toll partly to the speed with which flames raced through the town with little advance warning, driven by howling winds and fueled by drought-desiccated scrub and trees.

Weather conditions have since turned more to the firefighters' favor, though strong winds and lower humidity were expected to return late Saturday through early Sunday, authorities said.

The burned landscape has grown slightly to 57,000 hectares, but firefighters have managed to carve containment lines around 45 percent of the blaze's perimeter.

Burned-out homes and a vehicle stand in Paradise, California, November 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

The outbreak of the Camp Fire coincided with a series of smaller blazes in Southern California, most notably the Woolsey Fire, which is linked to three fatalities and has destroyed at least 500 structures near the Malibu coast west of Los Angeles. It was 78 percent contained on Friday night.

Scientists have said the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires in California and elsewhere across the West are primarily attributable to the prolonged drought that is symptomatic of climate change.

(With input from Reuters)