California wildfires: Death toll climbs to 51 as strong winds bring new blazes near Los Angeles

Blaze incinerates more than 8,800 homes and other buildings

California wildfires: Cars come within metres of blaze on Los Angeles freeway

The remains of six more victims of California’s most lethal and destructive wildfire in history have been found, bringing the death toll to 48 in the so-called Camp Fire in northern California and 51 total, statewide.

Forensic teams with cadaver dogs spent the day combing through ash and charred debris in what was let of the town of Paradise, around 175 miles (280km) north of San Francisco, near the state capital of Sacramento. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said 100 National Guard troops were being sent in at his request to assist in the search for additional human remains left by the Camp Fire.

The names of 80 people, many of them elderly, have been released in an effort to locate them amid the blaze damage.

The intensified effort to locate victims comes on the sixth day of a blaze that has incinerated more than 8,800 homes and other buildings, including most of Paradise, a town once home to 27,000 people that was largely erased hours after the fire began last Thursday. More than 50,000 local residents remained under evacuation orders.

In southern California, the Woolsey Fire has killed three people, destroyed more than 400 structures and displaced some 200,000 people in the mountains and foothills near the Malibu coast west of Los Angeles.

Darkened skies could be seen for days as the fire raged on, with winds picking up the smoke and sending it as far as Wisconsin nearly 2,000 miles away.

The Woolsey Fire has displaced several celebrities as well including Gerard Butler, Neil Young, and Lady Gaga, who was seen delivering pizzas, coffee, and gift cards to a nearby evacuation centre in Los Angeles.

That fire has consumed more than 97,000 acres through Los Angeles and Ventura counties and leaving 57,000 residents still in danger as firefighting authorities said only half of the blaze has been contained.

Donald Trump was briefed on the situation by Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) director Brock Long. Mr Trump said he had a phone call with California governor Jerry Brown “to let him know that we are with him, and the people of California, all the way!”

The president had tweeted over the weekend the fires were due to "poor" "forest management" in the state but did not elaborate on what that actually meant. He also threatened to stop federal government payments to California, presumably funds earmarked for forest management.

However, the current spate of wildfires is not in forests.

The Camp and Woolsey fires actually began in what the New York Times called the "wildland-urban interface: places where communities are close to undeveloped areas, making it easier for fire to move from forests or grasslands into neighbourhoods."

According to a 2015 report by the US Department of Agriculture, there were 44 million homes in those areas. That number is certainly higher in 2018 as urban areas expand in California.

Regarding his threat to withdraw federal funds for forest management in California - approximately 60 per cent of the forest land in the state is actually federally held and managed.

Of the 33 million acres, 40 per cent are owned and managed by individuals, Native American tribes, and timber companies. Only 3 per cent is owned by the state.

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After devastating fires last year, California had allocated more than $250 million to lower the risk of more wildfires but drought, possibly due to climate change, has exacerbated conditions. 

Meanwhile, several homeowners filed a lawsuit against utility company Pacific Gas & Electric for causing the fire.

The suit alleged the company did not properly inspect its high voltage power lines, a spark from which is thought to have ignited dry brush and grassland nearby.

The company has lost approximately 45 per cent of its stock value as the fires continue to rage.

To see how the day unfolded follow our live blog below

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[14 November 2018 11:09 · Samuel Osborne]

Teams of workers wielding chainsaws cleared downed power lines and other obstacles from Paradise streets while forensics investigators picked through barren, fire-scorched lots.

A 10-member forensics search team wearing white protective suits and red helmets used a dog to scour the debris on one residential street in Paradise lined with razed houses.

"Look for skulls, the big bones," one forensics worker said to others as they used metal poles and their hands to sift through ruins.

Recovery workers stirred green, darkened waters with long poles to probe for bodies at a nearby community swimming pool.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said 150 additional search personnel were due to arrive in the area, reinforcing 13 coroner-led recovery teams.

He has requested portable morgue teams from the US military, as well as a disaster mortuary crew, additional cadaver dogs and forensic anthropology units.

[14 November 2018 11:27 · Samuel Osborne]

The causes of the Camp and Woolsey fires were under investigation. Two utility companies, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, reported to regulators they experienced problems with transmission lines or substations in areas around the time the blazes were reported to have started.

[14 November 2018 11:53 · Samuel Osborne]

[14 November 2018 12:08 · Samuel Osborne]

The latest tally of 48 dead far surpasses the previous record for the greatest loss of life from a single wildfire in California history when 29 people killed by the Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles in 1933.

[14 November 2018 12:43 · Samuel Osborne]

A message board at a shelter for the many people who fled California's deadliest wildfire is filled with photos of the missing, as well as pleas for any information about relatives and friends. 

"I hope you are okay," reads one hand written note on the board filled with white and yellow sheets of notebook paper.

Another had a picture of a missing man: "If seen, please have him call." 

[14 November 2018 13:03 · Samuel Osborne]

[14 November 2018 13:22 · Samuel Osborne]

The search for the dead has drawn on portable devices that can identify someone's genetic material in a couple of hours, rather than days or weeks. 

"In many circumstances, without rapid DNA technology, it's just such a lengthy process," says Frank DePaolo, a deputy commissioner of the New York City medical examiners' office, which has been at the forefront of the science of identifying human remains since 9/11 and is exploring how it might use a rapid DNA device. 

[14 November 2018 13:35 · Samuel Osborne]

Firefighters have made progress against a massive blaze that has killed two people in star-studded Malibu and destroyed well over 400 structures in southern California. 

The flames roared to life again in a mountainous wilderness area on Tuesday, sending up a huge plume of smoke near the community of Lake Sherwood.

[14 November 2018 13:55 · Chris Riotta]

The death toll reached 48 in California’s wildfires by Tuesday night, easily becoming the state’s deadliest wildfire in history as the grim search for the missing continued into Wednesday morning. 

Among the landmarks and sites burned down includes a famous Jewish summer camp, where a wooden menorah was reportedly found among the remaining artifacts.

[14 November 2018 14:00 · Chris Riotta]

Here’s the latest reporting from the Associated Press on what’s it like in areas like Chico, California, where the search for missing loved ones continued Wednesday morning: 

A message board at a shelter for the many people who fled California’s deadliest wildfire is filled with photos of the missing, as well as pleas for any information about relatives and friends.

“I hope you are okay,” reads one hand written note on the board filled with white and yellow sheets of notebook paper. Another had a picture of a missing man: “If seen, please have him call.”

Authorities on Tuesday reported six more fatalities from the Northern California blaze, bringing the total number of dead so far to 48. They haven’t disclosed the total number still missing, but earlier in the week that figure was more than 200.