bdmetronews Desk ॥ Search crews have found eight more sets of remains in the burned-out rubble of Northern California, as officials there fear more deaths in the destructive wildfires raging at both ends of the state that has already claimed a total of 74 lives, including three lost in Southern California blazes.
The deadliest and most destructive of the two massive blazes is the Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County, which has killed at least 71 people.
There were more than 1,000 people still missing in the Butte County fire zones on Friday night, though authorities were working to track them down. Officials asked residents to go to the Butte County Sheriff’s Department’s website to check the missing persons list to make sure they are not on it.
Thom Porter, chief of strategic planning for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the death toll from the Camp Fire is expected to climb higher as search crews comb through more than 12,000 structures destroyed by the flames.
“It is by far the most deadly single fire in California history and it’s going to get worse, unfortunately,” Porter said of the Camp Fire.
California Gov. Jerry Brown toured the devastation caused by the Camp Fire earlier this week with Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The government leaders visited the firefighters still battling the inferno, which has burned an area of 142,000 acres and obliterated the city of Paradise, ravaging nearly every home in the bucolic community of 30,000 people.
“This is one of the worst disasters I’ve ever seen in my career, hands down,” Long said at a news conference Wednesday in Northern California.
