CHICO (KRON) - The Butte County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the death toll in the Camp Fire is now at 63 and 631 people are unaccounted for.

Authorities say 53 of those victims have been tentatively identified, but their names aren't being released to the public just yet.

There are 631 people reported missing but deputies say some of those people could be in shelters.

The blaze has burned 141,000 acres and has the deadliest wildfire in California history.

A grand total of 11,862 structures were destroyed in the Camp Fire and 9,700 of those were homes.

Fire investigators discovered a possible second origin for the start of the Camp Fire but the blaze remains under investigation.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON: </s> PARADISE (CBS SF) — The Butte County Sheriff announced Monday night that the death toll from the Camp Fire has risen to 42 after crews confirmed an additional 13 lives lost during their search for the missing.

The announcement came during regional officials’ 6 p.m. update on the Camp Fire.

Officials also said that the fire had grown to 117,000 acres with containment at 30 percent. The total number of single-family residences that were destroyed in the fire rose to 6,453 structures with 36 homes damaged.

Additionally, fire officials determined that 74 multiple residence buildings were destroyed with 11 of those types of structures damaged.

The total number of structures destroyed by the Camp Fire rose to 7,177.

A total of 52,000 residents have been evacuated due to the fire. Currently there are over 13,000 people being housed in shelters.

Earlier Monday, search teams returned to the historic devastation left by the wildfire that ripped through the communities of Paradise, Concow, Magalia and other smaller clusters of homes, incinerating everything in its fiery path.

Among those hoping and praying for word that their loved ones had been found safe was Ted Woods.

“Two of my friends are missing,” Woods said with his voice choking with emotion. “One out of Magalia and one out of Paradise. And I’m hoping it ain’t one of the body counts.”

Pam Mosher is searching for her daughter and son-in-law.

“It gets worse every day,” Mosher said as she held of photos of his missing relatives. “You try to tell yourself it’s going to be okay, you really don’t feel that way.”

Jake Hancock, who is a District Attorney Investigator in Butte County, is a member of a search team shifting through the rubble of burned down homes in Paradise, looking for human remains.

“We’re just going door to door, house to house,” he told KPIX 5. “Looking for families loved ones that are missing.”

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea put the number of missing at 228. The remains of 29 victims have been recovered, 25 of those in the town of Paradise.

The human toll has equaled the highest number of deaths in a single wildfire in California history matching the grim toll of the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles.
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Ten search teams were working in Paradise — a town of 27,000 — and in surrounding communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Authorities have called in a DNA lab and teams of anthropologists to help identify victims and asked families of those missing for DNA samples.

While President Donald Trump has blamed state forestry policies for the tragedy, outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown told reporters Sunday that global climate change was the culprit.

“We don’t know the cause of this fire, and the town of Paradise certainly had a lot of preparation, but we’re dealing with existential conditions that, once they take off, certain amount of dryness in the vegetation, in the soil, in the air, and the winds get up 50-60 miles an hour — this is what happens,” Brown said.

“But, managing all the forest in every way we can does not stop climate change, and those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we’re now witnessing, and will continue to witness in the coming years.”

Amid the ruins of Paradise on Sunday, there was a small bit of joy to celebrate. A member of Hancock’s search team found a scared and slightly singed family cat alive.

“I don’t usually get to recovery anything that’s alive,” said Vicky Vincent with the Shasta County Coroner’s Office. “It’s nice to be able to save something.”

And there were several joyful reunions on Sunday including John Warner, who had pleaded for any word of his grandparents during a TV interview.

“(I) Just hope that somebody is watching that’s seen them,” he asked. Moments later, his phone range, his grandfather had made it out of the deadly flames and was safe in a shelter.

A short time later he stood with his grandfather outside a Chico church that was serving as an evacuation center.

“We found you,” Warner said hugging his grandfather. “The lady that worked here (called) and said — ‘I know where they are art, they are over at the church.”

The shelters — like the one in Chico — have taken in thousands of evacuees who have lost their homes. The fire has destroyed more than 6,700 structures, most of them homes, becoming the most destruction in terms of loss of residences in state history.

Shelter volunteer Tim Wall said the system is being strained to its limits. He issued a plea for help Sunday.

“We’re so thankful for how the community has come together,” Wall said. “It’s been a major blessing. But this isn’t a one-day thing. This is long-term and we have to think that way. So food is going to continue to run out, so will supplies. We keep needing that. We definitely need medical supplies and medical professionals. A lot of our elderly are on oxygen and that’s running out quickly.”

In the Bay Area, the massive plume of smoke and ash driven western by the upper level winds continued to drape a layer of unhealthy air over the region early Monday.

The air quality indexes for several cities were among the worst in the world. San Francisco and Oakland had an AQI level of 166, Concord was at 161, San Pablo 168 and Livermore 174.

Local officials have issued an air quality advisory for the region, warning residents to limit their outdoor exposure.

Meanwhile, NFL officials were monitoring the pollution levels in Santa Cara. If the AQI reaches 200, Monday night’s San Francisco 49ers-New York Giants game could be cancelled. </s> CALIFORNIA — As deadly wildfires that have claimed at least 31 lives continue to scorch California, officials are trying to help people find hundreds of missing loved ones.

Many of the missing are from Butte County, where the most destructive fire in state history is burning.

Some 228 people remain unaccounted for in the Camp fire, county Sheriff and Coroner Kory Honea told reporters Sunday evening. Meanwhile, 107 people previously deemed missing have been found, some in shelters, he said.

Honea said his office had received more than 550 calls from people looking for missing friends and relatives.

The Camp fire—one of the state's deadliest—virtually obliterated the town of Paradise, home to more than 26,000 people.

Twenty-nine people have died in the Northern California blaze. Further south, near Los Angeles, the Woolsey fire has claimed two lives.

The National Weather Service warned early Monday that "dangerous fire weather" was expected to continue in California.

"A tight pressure gradient will keep producing high winds, and very dry air is in place with low relative humidities. This plus the ongoing drought conditions will all create conditions favorable for fire weather," it said.

Honea said 10 coroner search and recovery teams were helping with the search for Camp fire victims' remains.

Near an evacuation center at the Butte County Fairgrounds in Gridley, Sol Bechtold told CNN affiliate KRON that he was looking for his mother, Joanne Caddy, who had been missing since Thursday.

Holding a poster of his mother in front of him, Bechtold said it had been a rough few days.

"We learned her house was destroyed the other day so don't know what's happened to her -- she's kind of homebound, she doesn't have a car. I need to find my mom -- I'm not giving up hope she's out there," he said.

CNN affiliate KTXL reported that many fire victims were still helping others. More than 30 Butte County Sheriff's deputies reported for duty despite losing their homes, the news station reported.

Colusa Police Sgt. Jarrod Hughes told KTXL that his Paradise home had been destroyed in the blaze, but that he had donned his uniform and returned to work once he got his son to safety.

Hughes has been looking for the missing and dead.

"It's my community, it's where I grew up. It's something I absolutely had to do," Hughes said. "There was no question about it. It was get my family to safety so I can get in and get back up there and help everybody else."
• Camp Fire: The largest of the trio, the Camp Fire has burned 111,000 acres across Northern California and is 25% contained as of Sunday night, according to Cal Fire. It has destroyed an estimated 6,700 buildings, most of which were homes.
• Woolsey and Hill fires: In Southern California, the Woolsey fire had spread to 85,500 acres and was 15% contained Sunday night, up from 5% the night before. The smaller Hill Fire covered 4,531 acres and was 75% contained. Together, the fires are responsible for the destruction of 179 structures, but another 57,000 are threatened, according to fire officials.
• Massive evacuations: More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes statewide. The majority of those residents are in Los Angeles County, where 170,000 were evacuated.

Among those to evacuate were some celebrities whose homes have been lost to the fires.

The homes of Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, Robin Thicke and Gerard Butler are among those scorched in the Woolsey blaze. Butler posted a photo on Twitter of the charred remains of a Malibu home and thanked firefighters for their courage. Thicke posted a statement on Instagram thanking firefighters and volunteers who "risked their lives trying to save our home."

In a post on his official website decrying the impact of climate change, Young said "I have lost my home before to a California wildfire, now another."

California Gov. Jerry Brown also lamented the role of climate change in driving the fires.

"This is not the new normal, this is the new abnormal," Brown said. "The chickens are coming home to roost, this is real here."

Resources, including dozens of fire trucks and thousands of firefighters, are pouring in from out of state.

Firefighters on Sunday managed to contain flare-ups generated by high winds in canyons along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and Bell Canyon in Ventura County, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said. But officials warned that the dry conditions feeding the fire are expected to continue into the week and new flare-ups are possible. Though the state's drought has eased slightly, it's still abnormally dry, according to CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward. That leaves a lot of dry vegetation to feed fires.

Osby urged those in mandatory evacuation zones to leave, warning that they can get in the way of firefighting efforts.

"We must remain vigilant and not let our guard down," Osby said.

Crews on the scenes of the fires are combing through blackened ruins of homes. The number of dead more than doubled late Saturday, and continued to rise on Sunday.

So far, 29 bodies have been recovered in or near Paradise, a town of about 26,000 that's been all but leveled by the Camp fire. Of the six discovered Sunday, five were in homes and one was in a vehicle.

On Sunday, officials confirmed that two deaths in Malibu were related to the Woolsey Fire, bringing the statewide death toll to 31.

The painstaking process of finding the missing and identifying the dead is challenging, with some of the bodies recovered burned beyond recognition.

"In some cases, the only remains we are able to recover are bones or bone fragments," Honea, the Butte County sheriff and coroner, told reporters. "I know that members of the community who are missing loved ones are anxious, and I know that the news of us recovering bodies has to be disconcerting."

Many bodies recovered from the Camp Fire were found inside or near homes or in vehicles, officials said.

Hours after the fire broke out, residents fleeing Paradise became trapped in gridlock traffic as the fire closed in. Some drivers abandoned their vehicles in the chaos and attempted to escape on foot. </s> CHICO — The Camp Fire became the deadliest wildfire in California state history Monday.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday evening that an additional 13 deaths have been confirmed, bringing the total number of deaths to 42.

The Sheriff’s Office released the names of three people killed in the fire, saying their families had been notified.

The people identified Monday were Ernest Foss, 65, of Paradise; Jesus Fernandez, 48, of Concow; and Carl Wiley, 77, of Magalia.

Honea said he has requested about 150 additional search and rescue personnel to assist in the search for human remains. Additionally, he has asked for cadaver dogs, portable morgue units and additional radio equipment.

The sheriff would not say whether he expected the fire’s death toll to rise. But he did say he wanted to complete the search in a timely fashion for both the families of the deceased and the communities that have been affected.

With the number of fatalities at 29 on Sunday night, it was tied with Los Angeles County’s Griffith Park Fire of 1933, which burned 47 acres.

The Camp Fire consumed more acreage, reaching 117,000 acres as of Monday evening. The fire started Thursday morning near Camp Creek Road in the Feather River Canyon off Highway 70 near Pulga. It quickly moved west and engulfed the town of Paradise.

Cal Fire said 7,177 residential and commercial buildings have been destroyed and 92 have been damaged. The damage assessment team has created an interactive website that displays which buildings have been destroyed and those that are still standing.

Containment increased to 30 percent Monday, but Cal Fire said 15,500 structures remain threatened. A total of 5,139 people are working on the fire.

According to Cal Fire, winds from the northeast are fueling the fire. Firefighters worked Sunday night into Monday to hold lines and protect homes in areas in or near Magalia, Brush Creek and Cherokee.

Fire crews are fighting flames “aggressively,” according to Cal Fire. Officials are concerned about possibly shifting winds, putting other areas in danger.

Fifty-two thousand people from the areas of Paradise, Magalia, Concow, Butte Creek Canyon and Butte Valley remained under evacuation orders Monday, and Honea said no new evacuation warnings or orders had been issued. It was not yet clear, however, when residents could return home.

There are more than 200 people still missing, according to Honea. A hotline network has been set up to report people missing and people found. The numbers are (530) 538-6570, (530) 538-7544 and (530) 538-7671.

Many of the evacuation centers are full, so new ones are being evaluated. Those open with space available include: Bidwell Jr. High School, 2376 North Ave, Chico; Yuba-Sutter Fairground, 442 Franklin Ave, Yuba City; Plumas County Fairgrounds, 204 Fairground Rd, Quincy; and Butte County Fairgrounds, 199 E Hazel St., Gridley.

Small animals can be taken to the Chico Municipal Airport, 150 Airpark Blvd. Large animals can go to the Butte County Fairgrounds, 199 E. Hazel St. in Gridley.

The Gridley fairgrounds are no longer accepting donations, but Gridley High School is. Chico and Pleasant Valley high schools Monday collected clothing for students from Paradise High School, and they’ll be able to pick from what’s available Tuesday at the small gym at PV.

Air quality is forecast to be very unhealthy through Tuesday by the Butte County Air Quality Management District. Smoke levels are expected to be the highest near the active fire, immediately downwind of the fire area, and within and downwind of canyon drainages.

People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid all physical activity outdoors. Everyone else should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion.

The Butte County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in their chambers in the County Administration Building to ratify a local disaster proclamation and a health emergency declaration concerning the Camp Fire.

Chief Administrative Officer Shari McCracken declared the local emergency Thursday, which is necessary to qualify the county for state and federal aid. The supervisors have to ratify it within seven days for it to remain in effect.

Butte County Health Officer Dr. Andrew Miller declared the health emergency Friday, because the debris from the fire likely contains hazardous material and probable radioactive material. Again it has to be ratified by the supervisors.

President Donald Trump on Monday approved a major disaster declaration for California, opening access to federal funding for people affected by wildfires in Butte, Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help residents and business owners recover from the disaster.

Residents and business owners can apply for assistance beginning Tuesday at http://www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-3362. </s> CHICO, Butte County — Search and recovery crews found the remains of eight more people, bringing the total number of victims killed in the Camp Fire to 56, fire officials said at a Wednesday night news conference.

All eight were found in Paradise — six inside structures and two outside.

Butte County Sheriff-Coroner Kory Honea said 130 people remain “unaccounted for.” He said a partial list of the missing was released earlier in the day.

Honea said 47 of the remains have been tentatively identified but not positively confirmed.

“We have been able to locate or determine that over 200 people we thought were missing or unaccounted for are not — as of tonight we have 130 people on our unaccounted for list,” Honea said.

He said he expects the list of 130 will get shorter as more people are found. Some 461 people are working to search for victims. Officials have added cadaver dogs.

Officials said the Camp Fire has destroyed a total of 10,321 buildings — 8,650 of which are single family homes. They also said they have towed 128 vehicles that were abandoned during the fire — and many were total losses as they were badly burned.

The fire grew by 3,000 acres since Wednesday morning to 138,000 acres and remained 35 percent contained.

The catastrophic Camp Fire’s growth had slowed overnight and cooler temperatures and less wind on Wednesday were helping firefighters.

The inferno is the deadliest and most destructive in state history.

More than 13,000 people evacuated from the fire are living in shelters. An outbreak of norovirus has sickened people at one shelter in Chico, according to Butte County public health officials. They could not say how many people were ill, but reported that they had been moved to an isolated area of the shelter to prevent spread of the virus. </s> BUTTE COUNTY (KRON) - Authorities announced Saturday, that 14 additional bodies were recovered in the Camp Fire bringing the death toll to 23.

The Butte County Sheriff's Office says investigators discovered 14 more sets of remains, three days after the fire broke out. Some of the victims were found in cars and in houses.

The identities of the deceased won't be released until DNA testing is complete.

The sheriff's office initially received more than 500 calls from citizens who were unable to reach their loved ones.

Authorities confirmed that 70 people who were previously reported missing had been located. Ten of those people were staying in evacuation shelters.

The department has reports of 110 people still missing, but the agency is hopeful that more of those missing people will be located and reconnected with loved ones.

So far, the wildfire has burned more than 105,000 acres across Butte County with containment still at 20-percent.

There are 4,050 fighters on the ground working diligently to save lives and put out the wildfire.

The Camp Fire has become the third-deadliest in the state history.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:
• INTERACTIVE MAP: WHERE IS THE CAMP FIRE BURNING
• WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE GUNMAN IN THOUSAND OAKS MASSACRE </s> CHICO, Calif. (Reuters) - Remains have been recovered from at least 42 people killed by a devastating wildfire that largely incinerated the town of Paradise in northern California, making it the deadliest in U.S. history, the Butte County sheriff said on Monday.

The latest death toll was announced after authorities located the remains of 13 additional victims from the Camp Fire, which also ranks as the most destructive on record in California, having leveled more than 7,100 homes and other buildings since it erupted on Thursday, officials said.

The number of people killed by the fire had stood at 29 earlier in the day. </s> Butte County's Camp Fire — already the state's most deadly and destructive in modern history — had killed 56 people as of Wednesday, Sheriff Kory Honea said at a press conference.

That's up from 48 deaths on Tuesday. Honea said the eight additional bodies found Wednesday all were in Paradise. Only three victims have been identified so far: Concow resident 48-year-old Jesus Fernandez, Magalia resident 77-year-old Carl Wiley and 65-year-old Ernest Foss, of Paradise.

Meanwhile, Honea said there still are 130 people unaccounted for in the fire, a decrease from 228 people earlier this week.

Honea said advanced DNA technology was en route to Butte County to help identify the dead, and his office has already tentatively done that for 47 of the victims. He told area residents on Tuesday that, because it's "very, very difficult" to identify fire victims, the general population might end up finding bodies themselves when they're let back home.

The news also came as Honea acknowledged it was possible some bodies would never be identified because of how severely the fire burned.

The destruction from the fire has also gotten worse.

The number of structures destroyed went up Wednesday to 10,321 — of which 8,650 are single-family homes. The fire's size also grew to 138,000 acres Wednesday, fire officials said at a press conference.

The blaze that broke out in the Paradise area on the morning of November 8 was still 35 percent containment. It has forced the evacuation of 52,000, of whom 1,385 are still in shelters.

The unprecedented fire damaged far fewer structures than it's destroyed. The current damage toll is at only 217 total structures.

Meanwhile, county officials confirmed Wednesday that there was an outbreak of norovirus at the Neighborhood Church shelter in Chico. They said they didn't know how many people were affected. Those who are sick are separated from everyone else and being treated by public health nurses, they said.

These are the people who were still considered missing as of Tuesday evening (If you are on this list, the sheriff's office asks you to call 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544 or 530-538-7671 to let them know you're safe):

More: JUST POSTED: FEMA opens in Oroville as Camp Fire grows Wednesday </s> Local authorities said Friday that the number of persons reported missing as a result of the week-long wildfire in northern California has gone up to more than a 1000 while the death toll along with another fire in the south of the state has reached 74.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, during a press conference updated the number of missing persons, which has gone up from 631 on Thursday to 1,011.
The Camp Fire in Butte County is now ranked as the deadliest wildfire in Californian history, with 42 people confirmed dead and 228 people missing.