That makes it one of the most destructive fires in Southern California history, though it pales in comparison to the 14,000 homes lost in the Camp fire in Butte County. The Woolsey fire destroyed 1,643 structures as it swept through Oak Park and Ventura County and into Malibu, according to a final report released Sunday. The fire came over the ridge very fast, and senior citizens with limited mobility could have had trouble fleeing, Thompson said.Īs teams wrapped up their work, Thompson dispatched them to other neighborhoods to continue searching for people who lost their lives in the fire. “We’re going trailer by trailer, piece by piece, turning it over for anything that looks human,” said Thompson, who led an operation that drew searchers from counties such as Marin, Contra Costa, Shasta and Kern, as well as the National Guard and California Conservation Corps.įacebook photos before the fire of the Ridgewood community at Pentz and Wagstaff roads, where residents were 55 years and older, showed tidy mobile homes with well-kept gardens.
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The searchers, many of whom are volunteers, also found a safe full of coins as they combed through Ridgewood and Ponderosa Mobile Estates next door. On Sunday, the grim, painstaking task yielded some bones, including those of two small dogs. Dave Thompson of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Last week, searchers found the remains of two people there, said Sgt. The surrounding pine trees were singed, ringing a neighborhood where every home had been reduced to charred, twisted wreckage. Of the 88 dead, 54 have been tentatively identified.Īt the Ridgewood mobile home park for senior citizens in Paradise on Sunday, more than 100 search and rescue workers in white jumpsuits and gas masks combed through the rubble with shovels and rakes. The names of six others who died in the fire were released last week. The death toll from California’s worst fire jumped to 88, with 203 people still missing, officials said.Īuthorities released the the latest of names after notifying the victims’ next of kin.Īccording to the Sheriff’s Office, they are: Officials have had to bring in water and gently wash away the clay to expose potential human remains in the charred mess.īutte County Sheriff Kory Honea on Monday released the names of 16 more people who died in the Camp fire. Typically, crews scoop fire debris into a screen and sift it, looking for bone or bone fragments, but the ash and rain have mixed to form a clay-like substance, making the task nearly impossible. The rain is also expected to complicate the already challenging search for human remains among the rubble of the Camp fire. The devastation can be deadly and often comes without warning. The soil in recently burned areas cannot absorb significant amounts of rainwater, so excessive precipitation can lead to fast-moving flows containing mud, debris and even trees and boulders. When we have rapid runoff, that’s when it can bring down entire hillsides.” “If the rain comes over time, there’s some opportunity for it to absorb or gradually run off. “It’s the intensity that can cause debris flows,” said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “Ash doesn’t absorb water, which complicates things,” Gates said.Ī third storm could bring 2½ to 4 inches of rain to the charred region from Friday through Sunday. The California Conservation Corps also has been working on erosion-control measures for mountain slopes filled with fire-damaged pine and chaparral. The Butte County Emergency Operations Center has prepared for the rain by clearing drainage culverts of debris, said Matt Gates, public information officer for the Paradise Police Department. Forecasters predicted about an inch of precipitation, saying the relatively weak system would sputter out by early Wednesday.īut a stronger storm will roll in late Wednesday, bringing with it the potential for debris flows and up to 3 inches of rain through Thursday night.
The first of three storm systems expected in wildfire-ravaged Butte County, Calif., dropped a smattering of rain Tuesday.
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