Los Angeles: The deadliest and most destructive fire in California’s history was finally brought totally under control by firefighters, more than two weeks after it erupted, authorities said on Sunday.
The so-called Camp Fire, which broke out on November 8, is so far known to have killed 85 people.
The Butte County Sheriff’s department said that they had mistakenly added two people to an earlier death toll of 87. However late Sunday they increased the number of missing people to 296 from 249 – still considerably lower than the 474 reported missing on Friday.
“#CampFire … is now 100% contained,” Cal Fire, the state fire authority, said in a bulletin on Twitter.
Only 54 of the fatalities have been identified, according to the local sheriff’s office in Butte County, a rural area north of the state capital Sacramento. A total of 153,336 acres were affected by the fire, with nearly 14,000 homes and hundreds of other structures destroyed.
Heavy downfalls that have soaked the fire zone in the past days helped douse the remaining flames, but also made it more difficult for crews searching for bodies.
The Camp Fire was the second major blaze to hit California in recent weeks with a fire in the Malibu area near Los Angeles also killing three people.
The smoke from the Camp Fire was so intense that schools in San Francisco had to close at one point earlier this month as did the city’s famed cable car and Alcatraz Island.
California’s governor, Jerry Brown, has warned that the state can expect a growing number of major fires as a result of global warming.
US President Donald Trump, who visited one of the worst-hit towns called Paradise last weekend, caused some consternation by saying that the fires were due in part to forestry mismanagement.
Ahead of the announcement that the fire has been totally tamed, authorities had already begun letting residents return to some of the worst hit areas to inspect the damage to their homes.
In a joint bulletin posted on Saturday, the police and fire service said that evacuation orders for some areas over the last fortnight were being lifted for both residents and non-residents, while warning that essential services were still “very limited.” “Prior to returning home, residents are encouraged to take steps to ensure they have food, water and fuel for their vehicles,” said the statement.
While Brown has warned that mega fires such as those in Butte and Malibu will cease to be “abnormal” events, the state has allocated about $1 billion over the next five years for fire prevention. (AFP)
