Camp fire death toll rises to 63 with more than 600 still missing

Rescue workers are searching for more than 630 people reported missing in a northern California town reduced to ashes by the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history.

At least 63 people have been killed in and around Paradise by the Camp fire that erupted a week ago in the Sierra foothills 175 miles (280km) north of San Francisco. The fire is among the most lethal US wildfires since 2000.

The remains were found outdoors and in the rubble of homes and cars in the towns of Paradise, Magalia and Concow. One victim was found in a overturned charred car in Paradise.

Authorities attribute the death toll in part to the speed with which flames raced through the town of 27,000, driven by wind and fueled by desiccated scrub and trees.

Nearly 12,000 homes and buildings burned hours after the blaze erupted, the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) said. The fire left a ghostly expanse of empty lots covered in ash and strewn with debris.

Thousands of additional structures are still threatened as firefighters, many from distant states, labored to contain and suppress the flames.

The revised list of 631 missing people is up from 297 listed on Thursday by the Butte county sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Kory Honea on Thursday said the remains of seven victims have been located since Wednesday’s tally of 56. Nearly 300 people reported missing have been found alive and the list of missing would fluctuate, he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Fema, is in the area to aid the more than 52,000 forced to evacuate because of the fire.

The fire grew to 140,000 acres, or 219 sq miles, on Thursday as crews managed to push containment up to 40%. Authorities were able to lift evacuation orders in some areas near Chico and Forest Ranch.

Wind conditions are expected to worsen this weekend.

Sheriff Honea has asked relatives of the missing to submit DNA samples to hasten identification of the dead. But he said some of those unaccounted for may never be identified.

The were other smaller blazes in southern California including the Woolsey fire that is linked to three deaths and destroyed at least 500 structures near the Malibu coast west of Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles sheriff began allowing residents to return to certain parts of Malibu, and the smaller communities of Lake Sherwood and Hidden Valley.

Scientists say two seasons of devastating wildfires in California are linked to drought they say is symptomatic of climate change.

Cal Fire said 40% of the Camp fire’s perimeter is contained, up from 35%, even as the blaze footprint grew 2,000 acres to 141,000 acres (57,000 hectares). The Woolsey fire is 57% contained.

Public schools in Sacramento and districts 90 miles to the south, and as far away as San Francisco and Oakland, said Friday’s classes would be canceled as the fire worsened air quality.

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Many of those who survived the flames but lost homes stayed with friends or relatives or at American Red Cross shelters.

The White House announced that Donald Trump would visit the the state Saturday to meet with victims of the deadly wildfires raging in northern and southern California. Critics say Trump politicized the fires by casting blame on forest mismanagement.

Fire investigators have also identified a possible second origin of the Camp fire, the cause of which remains under investigation.

Thursday marked a busy day for authorities in northern California. Police officers were involved in a shooting in an area under evacuation that left one man and two dogs dead, including a police dog.

The Butte county district attorney, Mike Ramsey, said the man was a 48-year-old from Berry Creek who was a suspect in a 2014 double murder. When approached by officers, he allegedly reached for a gun after saying: “I’m not going back. You guys should have left me alone.”