Terrible news from the region just north of Sacramento California where the devastating ‘Camp Fire’ impacted the town of Paradise. Late Wednesday evening search and recovery workers located another eight sets of human remains bringing the total death toll from this single fire event to 56. The death toll is anticipated to climb…

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and FEMA Director Brock Long visited the devastated area today to thank firefighters and rescue workers. The search for bodies is gruesome as some human remains are found inside burned structures and others outside.

CALIFORNIA – 9 p.m. ET: As of Wednesday night, eight more human remains have been found, bringing the death toll to 56. Six of them were found inside structures and two were found outside. Statewide, the death toll is 59 (including three from the Woolsey Fire). There have been more than 10,000 structures destroyed by the Camp Fire, including homes. The total amount of evacuated residents remains at 52,000 people. The Camp Fire containment remains at 35 percent. Some 138,000 acres have been scorched.

Authorities searching through the blackened aftermath of California’s deadliest wildfire Wednesday released the names of some 130 people who are unaccounted, including many in their 80s and 90s, and dozens more could still be unaccounted for. As the names of the missing were made public, additional crews joined the search. “We want to be able to cover as much ground as quickly as we possibly can,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. “This is a very difficult task.” A sheriff’s department spokeswoman, Megan McMann, acknowledged that the list of the missing was incomplete. She said detectives were concerned about being overwhelmed with calls from relatives if the entire list were released. (read more) </s> Authorities searched on Monday for more than 200 people unaccounted for in one of the wildfires rampaging through parts of California, voicing concern about a possible rising death toll, with gusty, dry winds expected to fan the flames.

The so-called Camp Fire, California’s most destructive on record, had left at least 228 people missing as of early Monday, according to Kory Honea, sheriff of northern California’s Butte County, site of the fire. That fire and one in southern California have killed at least 31 people.

Both fires have been whipped up by hot dry winds expected to continue through Tuesday evening, according to officials. The winds were expected to heighten the risk of fresh blazes ignited by scattered embers. More than 224,000 people have been displaced by the fires, officials said.

The Camp Fire, 60km north of Sacramento, burned down more than 6,700 homes and businesses in the town of Paradise, more structures than any other wildfire recorded in California. The blaze has probably caused between $2 billion (€1.8 billion) and $4 billion in insured property damage, Morgan Stanley estimated in a report on Monday.

The fire had scorched more than 113,000 acres and was 25 per cent contained, officials said on Monday. Its death toll of 29 equals that of the Griffith Park Fire in 1933, the deadliest wildfire on record in California.

Speaking on CNN, Mr Honea said that while he held out hope that many people listed as missing would turn up safe, “given what we’ve dealt with so far with casualties as a result of this fire, I have concerns that it [the death toll] will rise”.

In southern California, the Woolsey Fire had burned more than 91,000 acres and was 20 per cent contained, officials said. The fire had forced authorities to issue evacuation orders for a quarter of a million people in Ventura and Los Angeles counties and beachside communities including the Malibu beach colony. By Sunday night parts of the two counties were reopened.

At least two people have died in the Woolsey Fire, according to officials from the statewide agency Cal Fire, which has more than 3,200 personnel fighting the blaze. The number of people missing in the Woolsey Fire was not immediately available.

Many of those allowed to return were left without power or a mobile phone service, even if their homes were spared by the flames.

A smaller blaze in southern California, the Hill Fire, was 75 per cent contained and had burned 4,531 acres, officials said.

Wind gusts of up to 100km/h were expected in the mountains, valleys and canyons of southern California, raising the possibility of downed power lines and trees. This, in combination with low humidity, was expected to create the perfect conditions for fires to spread.

Local residents were despondent over the fire damage.

“It’s not the house, because you can rebuild. But it’s what is inside the house. It’s all gone,” Malibu resident Marcella Shirk (82) told KABC-TV. “And that’s what hurts, those kinds of things hurt, because you can’t replace that.” She and her husband lost their house of 41 years and its possessions. The house burned on his 92nd birthday.

Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has asked US president Donald Trump to declare a major disaster to bolster the emergency response and help residents recover. Mr Trump, a Republican who has often criticised Democrat-led California on a variety of issues including immigration enforcement, blamed the state government in Twitter comments during the weekend, criticising poor forest management by the state for the infernos.

Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters, called Mr Trump’s statement “ill-timed” given the loss of life and ongoing search for missing people. “You can’t just make a blanket statement,” Mr Rice told MSNBC on Monday, adding that fires and forest management were complicated and that weather also was a major factor.

“Right now, what is needed is, really, support,” Mr Rice said.– Reuters </s> The task is painstaking and painful. A searcher is given the name of someone who is unaccounted for and an address.

A team heads over to the property, more than likely one where every evidence of life has been wiped out by flames. Many of the searchers are local and have lost their own homes. Now they look to see whether they can find the remains of their neighbors.

Five more sets of remains were found Saturday, Butte County Sheriff and Coroner Kory Honea said.

There are now at least 76 dead from the Camp Fire, which has obliterated more structures and lives than any previous fire in California.

Almost all of the town of Paradise is gone. President Donald Trump witnessed the devastation for himself Saturday, accompanied by Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom.

“We’re all going to work together and we’ll do a real job, but this is very sad to see,” Trump said.

A list of people unaccounted for has almost 1,300 names on it. Officials hope they find those people at shelters, or that missing people were simply without phone service and will eventually call in, or that they will figure out duplicate names when reconciling the list.

They are also trying to help thousands of people who did make it out alive but have nowhere to go, except for the parking lot of a Walmart and other places that are hosting thousands in their vehicles and tents.

“It is overwhelming, I don’t have any word to describe it,” Honea told CNN on Saturday. “This is unprecedented. No one has had to deal with this magnitude that caused so much destruction and regrettably so much death.”

The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, the Camp Fire has destroyed more than 9,800 homes and scorched 149,000 acres since starting November 8. It was 55% contained as of Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, three deaths have been reported in the Woolsey Fire in Southern California, bringing the statewide death toll from the wildfires to 79.

‘A lot of people don’t know … we’re looking for them’

Even as the list of those missing in the Camp Fire has ballooned, it’s hard to tell exactly how many people truly are lost, officials have said.

“That is raw data we’re collecting from phone calls, emails and the 911 system,” Honea said Saturday. “It’s not perfect data, but our thought process is that it’s better to get that information out to help start getting people accounted for. So rather than wait for perfection, we’re trying to get some progress going.”

Hundreds of deputies, National Guard troops, coroners and anthropologists are sifting through leveled homes and mangled cars for remains. While the focus is on the homes of people reported missing, some teams are going down streets from one property to the next.

“I want you to understand that there are a lot of people displaced, and we’re finding that a lot of people don’t know that we’re looking for them,” the sheriff said.

If people find their own or loved ones’ names on the list at the Butte County Sheriff’s Office’s website, they should call the sheriff’s office, Honea said.

In the midst of despair, hope remains. The mayor of Paradise told CNN Saturday that she is committed to rebuilding her town, as is the town council.

“Paradise is not gone,” Jody Jones said, citing a friend’s Facebook post. “It’s just closed for remodeling.”

Margaret Newsum gathered her medicine and other vital supplies and went outside her home in Magalia as the Camp Fire roared toward her home.

She had no phone service and no electricity, and she was just hoping someone would see her and come help.

Her rescue came in the form of a big green garbage truck and driver Dane Ray Cummings.

“He said, you’re going with me,” Newsum, 93, recalled.

Newsum recently broke her back and uses a walker to get around, which made it tricky to get up into the cab of his garbage truck. Cummings and some neighbors lifted her up and buckled her in, and they strapped her walker to the side of the truck.

Harrison, a single father, decided Newsum shouldn’t go to an evacuation center so instead he took her home with him.

And she’ll be there a while. Newsum’s home wasn’t destroyed, but it might be months before she can live there again.

Escape took them through ditches, front yards

With each day another story comes that makes it clearer how chaotic it was on the flame-filled and smoky day that the fire erupted.

Dan Newman, a team captain with the Butte County Sheriff’s search and rescue team, said he originally was tasked with going door to door to alert people in the community of Concow to the fire.

The mission quickly changed to go to Paradise, about a 20-mile drive away, where a hospital was in danger.

“When we arrived at the hospital there were already flames, and all of a sudden the urgency just skyrocketed,” he said.

His team went around to the ER entrance and threw four patients in its truck.

The road that went by the hospital was swamped with cars and accidents. Drivers used every bit of open space they could, including ditches and racing through front yards, to get by.

The fire was faster than any vehicle was moving.

“We had homes on fire on each side,” he said, adding that there were times when he feared for their lives.

They got out, but another team couldn’t and ended up back at the hospital.

The Woolsey Fire burning in Southern California has destroyed 836 structures in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, Cal Fire said.

More than 98,000 acres have been burned since the blaze began November 8, while evacuees remain in shelters, and portions of Malibu and nearby areas must be rebuilt, officials said. It was 82% contained on Saturday morning, Cal Fire reported.

Impact Your World: How you can help the fire victims

“Resources will continue to mop up and patrol. Fire suppression repair teams are actively engaged working around the fire perimeter and affected areas,” the agency said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Cal Fire reported some improvement in smoke levels regionally Saturday, but the air was still in the very unhealthy range. </s> Death toll rises to 31 with 200 missing in California wildfires

(BBC) — The death toll in wildfires sweeping California has risen to 31, with more than 200 people still unaccounted for, officials have said.

Six more people were confirmed killed in the Camp Fire in the north of the state, taking the toll there to 29.

It now equals the deadliest wildfire on record in California – the 1933 Griffith Park disaster in Los Angeles.

In the south, the Woolsey Fire has claimed two lives as it damaged beach resorts including Malibu.

An estimated 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes to avoid three major blazes in the state.

With strengthening winds threatening to spread the flames, state Governor Jerry Brown has urged President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster, a move that would harness more federal emergency funds.

The appeal came a day after Mr Trump threatened to cut funding for California, blaming the fires on poor forest management.

What is the latest on the Camp Fire?

Emergency teams have been sifting through the remains of more than 6,700 homes and businesses burned down in the town of Paradise.

The town and surrounding area bore the brunt of the inferno, which started in nearby forest on Thursday.

At a news conference late on Sunday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the bodies of five people had been found in their burned-out homes and a sixth was found inside a vehicle. He said that more than 200 people were still unaccounted for.

The mayor of Paradise, Jody Jones, gave the BBC an update on the situation in the town.

“Most of the residential [area] is gone. I would say 90%,” she said. “I had an opportunity to go up there and take a look for myself. Just about everyone I know lost their home.”

The fire is the most destructive in the state’s history and the joint deadliest.

It has burned more than 109,000 acres (44,000 hectares) and is nearly 25% contained, fire officials said.

What about the Woolsey Fire?

The blaze started on Thursday near Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles (64km) north-west of central Los Angeles.

By Sunday it had consumed 83,000 acres and destroyed at least 177 buildings, officials said. It is only 10% contained. The smaller Hill Fire, nearby, has scorched 4,530 acres and is 75% contained.

Some looting was reported in the southern fire area over the weekend and police said arrests had been made.

Luxury homes in Malibu and other beach communities are among properties that have fallen victim to the flames.

Firefighters used a respite from strong winds on Saturday to drop fire retardants to strengthen firebreaks.

But officials warned against complacency, with winds of up to 70mph (112km/h) expected over the coming days. They said fires could spread quickly and unexpectedly.

“Winds are already blowing. They are going to blow for the next three days. Your house can be rebuilt but you can’t bring your life back,” said Los Angeles County fire chief Daryl Osby.

Meteorologist David Gomberg told the Los Angeles Times newspaper that fire tornadoes were possible.

What do the politicians say?

Governor Brown’s request to President Trump was aimed at bolstering the emergency response to what he called the “catastrophic” nature of the wildfires.

“We’re putting everything we’ve got into the fight against these fires and this request ensures communities on the front lines get additional federal aid,” Mr Brown’s letter said.

Mr Trump’s response to the fires has been criticised as unsympathetic and ill-informed.

On Sunday, during a trip to France, he tweeted: “With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!”

He has previously blamed Californian officials for wildfires and threatened to withhold federal funding.

In a tweet on Saturday, he accused state authorities of “gross mismanagement” of forests. </s> The number of names on the missing person’s list for Northern California’s Camp fire grew to 1,011 Friday night, nearly doubling the number reported Thursday, though fire officials warned that the list may include duplicate names.

Search-and-rescue officials also discovered eight more bodies in the Camp fire’s aftermath, bringing the death total to 71. Three bodies have been recovered in the Woosley fire in Southern California, making the state’s death toll now 74.

“I want you to understand that this is a dynamic list. It will fluctuate both up and down every day,” Butte County Sheriff-Coroner Kory L. Honea said of the missing person’s list Friday night.

Paradise reeling: The death toll from the #CampFire rises to 71 and the number of people missing soars over 1000. The wildfire has scorched 146,000 acres, destroyed over 15,000 structures and is now 50% contained. The search for the missing continues. https://t.co/VOdZlYY6uJ pic.twitter.com/eNuUzk60Mz — Marcus Yam 火 (@yamphoto) November 17, 2018

Honea said the number of people grew significantly Friday because law enforcement now has more resources to address missing person reports, including a newly established call center and more time to review reports that were emailed to law enforcement.

Honea also noted that the list may include misspelled names and names of people who are not actually missing.

“In the initial hours of this extraordinarily chaotic event, as people were calling in, talking about people that they couldn’t find ... that information was being entered in as rapidly as possible by public safety dispatchers,” he said.

The Camp fire is considered the most deadly and destructive wildfire in the state of California. Investigators continue to scour the town of Paradise and the surrounding areas, searching for additional remains and assessing the damage.

I keep thinking about a conversation I had with a veteran firefighter about the fatalities on the #CampFire. So many people assumed it wouldn't be as bad as it was and refused to evacuate. When he got back to their homes, they were on fire. — Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) November 17, 2018

“I can’t let perfection get in the way of progress,” Honea told reporters. “It’s important for us to get the information out so that we can get started on identifying these unaccounted individuals.”

Since last week, the Camp fire has spread to an estimated 146,000 acres, devastating the town of Paradise and forcing 52,000 people to flee their homes. Officials said the blaze was 50 percent contained by Friday.

The Woolsey fire in Southern California has burned more than 98,000 acres, forcing thousands to evacuate Malibu and surrounding areas. As of Friday, the Woolsey fire was 67 percent contained.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit California to meet with people impacted by the fires and assess the damage on Saturday. The White House has not released details on which locations Trump will visit. </s> The death toll from the three raging wildfires in California has increased to 31, with more than 300,000 people forced to evacuate from their homes across the US state, according to authorities.

Of the 31 victims, 29 died in Northern California’s Camp Fire and two in Southern California’s Woolsey Fire, reports CNN.

The Camp fire — the most destructive blaze in the state’s history and largest of the three — has burned 111,000 acres across Northern California and was 25 per cent contained as of Sunday morning, according to Cal Fire.

It has virtually burned the town of Paradise to the ground and destroyed an estimated 6,700 buildings, most of which were homes.

Cal Fire said that at least 110 people were still missing and the toll could go higher.

In Southern California, the Woolsey fire has spread to 83,275 acres and was 10 per cent contained, up from 5 per cent the night before.

The smaller Hill Fire covered 4,531 acres and was 75 per cent contained. Together, responsible for the destruction of 179 structures, but another 57,000 were threatened, fire officials said.

Firefighters on Sunday managed to contain flareups generated by high winds in Los Angeles County.

But officials warned that the dry conditions feeding the fire are expected to continue into the week and gusts would peak at around 40 mph.

“Sadly, with these winds, it’s not over yet,” Scott Jalbert, chief of Cal Fire’s San Luis Obispo Unit, said on Sunday.

More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes statewide.

The majority of those residents were in Los Angeles County, where 170,000 were evacuated. </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> Authorities searching through the blackened aftermath of California’s deadliest wildfire Wednesday released the names of some 130 people who are unaccounted, including many in their 80s and 90s, and dozens more could still be unaccounted for. Officials in Northern California said Tuesday that search crews had found six more bodies, bringing the death toll from the so-called Camp Fire to 56 and the statewide total to 59.

As the names of the missing were made public, additional crews joined the search. “We want to be able to cover as much ground as quickly as we possibly can,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. “This is a very difficult task.”

A sheriff’s department spokeswoman, Megan McMann, acknowledged that the list of the missing was incomplete. She said detectives were concerned about being overwhelmed with calls from relatives if the entire list were released.

A new lawsuit blames the fire on a major utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, for allegedly failing to inspect and properly maintain its power lines. In a statement, PG&E said customer safety was its “highest priority” and it’s focusing on helping first responders.

Five hundred miles south, firefighters have made progress battling the “Woolsey Fire.” Some neighborhoods were reopened, and residents were able to see if their home survived. </s> PARADISE, Calif. (Reuters) - Search teams have recovered remains of 42 people killed by a fierce wildfire that largely incinerated the town of Paradise in northern California, marking the greatest loss of life from a wild land blaze in state history, authorities said on Monday.

The latest death toll, up from 29 tallied over the weekend, was announced by Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea at an evening news conference in the nearby city of Chico after authorities found the bodies of 13 more victims of the devastating blaze dubbed the Camp Fire.

The fire already ranked as the most destructive on record in California in terms of property losses, having consumed more than 7,100 homes and other structures since igniting on Thursday in Butte County’s Sierra foothills, about 175 miles (280 km) north of San Francisco.

Honea said 228 people were officially listed as missing in the disaster, but added that his office had received requests to check on the wellbeing of more than 1,500 people who had not been heard from by loved ones. Of those cases, 231 individuals had turned up safe, he said.

Authorities made clear, however, that they are bracing for the number of fatalities to climb.

In addition to 13 coroner-led recovery teams working in the fire zone, 150 search-and-recovery personnel were due to arrive on Tuesday, Honea said.

The sheriff said he also has requested three portable morgue teams from the U.S. military, a “disaster mortuary” crew and an unspecified number of cadaver dog units to assist in the search for human remains. Three groups of forensic anthropologists were also called in to help, he said.

The bulk of the destruction and loss of life occurred in and around the town of Paradise, where flames reduced most of the buildings to ash and rubble on Thursday night, just hours after the blaze erupted. Some 52,000 people remained under evacuation orders, the sheriff said.

The 42 confirmed fatalities marked the highest death toll in history from a single California wildfire, Honea said, far surpassing the previous record of 29 lives lost in 1933 from the Griffith Park blaze in Los Angeles.

Authorities reported two more people perished over the weekend in a separate blaze, dubbed the Woolsey Fire, that has destroyed 435 structures and displaced some 200,000 people in the mountains and foothills near Southern California’s Malibu coast, west of Los Angeles.

President Donald Trump, who drew criticism over the weekend for erroneously blaming the fires on “gross mismanagement” of forests, approved California Governor Jerry Brown’s request for a major disaster declaration on Monday. The measure hastens availability of federal emergency aid to fire-stricken regions of the state.

The fires have spread with an erratic intensity that has strained firefighting resources while catching many residents by surprise.

The bodies of some of the Camp Fire victims were found in burned-out wreckage of vehicles that were overrun by walls of fire as evacuees tried to flee, only to be trapped in deadly knots of traffic gridlock on Thursday night.

“It was very scary,” Mayor Jody Jones recounted of her family’s own harrowing escape from their home as fire raged all around them.

“It took a long time to get out. There was fire on both sides of the car. You could feel the heat coming in through the car,” she told CNN. Jones said her family is now living in their mobile home parked in a vacant lot.

More than 15,000 structures were threatened by the Camp Fire on Monday in an area so thick with smoke that visibility was reduced in some places to less than half a mile.

Perilous winds that stoked the fire through drought-parched brush and chaparral abated on Saturday, giving firefighters a chance to gain some ground against the flames.

High winds returned on Sunday but fell again Monday morning, with crews managing to carve containment lines around 30 percent of the Camp Fire perimeter, an area encompassing 117,000 acres of scorched, smoldering terrain.

The Woolsey Fire has blackened nearly 94,000 acres and was also 30 percent contained as of Monday night, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

Winds of up to 40 miles per hour (64 km per hour) were expected to continue in Southern California through Tuesday, heightening the risk of fresh blazes ignited by scattered embers. CalFire said 57,000 structures were still in harm’s way from the Woolsey Fire.

Forecasts called for winds to pick up again Monday night in Butte County, though with less force than previous days, National Weather Service meteorologist Aviva Braun told reporters.

Nearly 9,000 firefighters, many from out of state, were battling to suppress the Camp Fire, the Woolsey Fire and a handful of smaller Southern California blazes, backed by squadrons of water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers.

Some evacuees in Malibu, a seaside community whose residents include a number of Hollywood celebrities, were allowed to return home but were left without power or cellphone service.

California has endured two of the worst wildfire seasons in its history over the past couple of years, a situation experts attribute in large part to prolonged drought across much of the Western United States.

Forty-six people died in a flurry of wind-driven wildfires that swept northern California’s wine country in October of last year, destroying some 8,900 homes and other structures. The worst of those blazes, dubbed the Tubbs Fire, was blamed for 22 of the deaths.
The death toll in the Camp and Woolsey wildfires has risen to 31 with more than 200 people still missing.