California wildfire: Death toll rises to 44, over 200 missing

TIL Desk/World/California/ The three raging wildfires in California have killed 44 people since it started last week, a record number of deaths from a wildfire in the US state, officials said. Of the 44 people killed, 42 died in Northern California’s Camp Fire, while two others were killed in the Woolsey Fire in Malibu, Butte county Sheriff Kory L. Honea told the media on Monday night.

Honea said more than 200 people remain missing in and around the wooded town of Paradise in northern California, which sits in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and was popular with retirees. The Camp Fire which broke out in Paradise on the morning of November 8, has already burned about 117,000 acres, destroyed 6,453 homes, and was only about 30 per cent contained.

“My sincere hope is that I don’t have to come here each night and report a higher and higher number,” Sheriff Honea said. Camp Fire, which continues to rage in the hills and ravines east of the city of Chico, is also the most destructive fire in California history, with more than 7,100 structures destroyed, most of them homes. Meanwhile, an estimated 435 structures have been destroyed in the Woolsey Fire west of Los Angeles, up from the 177 figure provided on Sunday night.