Number Of Missing People Drops To Below 700 As Death Toll Continues To Rise In California’s Deadliest Fire
The Camp Fire has destroyed more than 15,000 structures, including more than 11,700 homes, according to the Monday evening incident report. As survivors begin returning home, media outlets report on updates from the scene of the disaster, from evacuees' rough living conditions to the transmission line that may be linked to the blaze.
Sacramento Bee:
Camp Fire Update: 79 Now Dead, 699 Still Unaccounted For
The number of reported dead in Butte County’s Camp Fire increased by two Monday, bringing the total to 79, Cal Fire said in an incident report. One of the human remains found Monday was located in a structure in Paradise; the other was located outside in Magalia, according to a press release from the Butte County Sheriff’s office. Of the 79 dead, 64 have been tentatively identified, according to the release. (Darden, 11/19)
Sacramento Bee:
Volunteers Conduct Much Of The Search In Paradise For Camp Fire Victims
They are retired SMUD engineers and school principals. One is a full-time mom, another a professional farrier. They are the volunteer members of El Dorado County’s search and rescue team, usually dispatched to find lost hikers and hunters in the hills and forests that stretch between Placerville and Lake Tahoe. Last week, in the aftermath of the Camp Fire, they were in Butte County on a singular mission. (Lillis, 11/20)
The Washington Post:
With Disease In Shelters And Hotels At Capacity, Wildfire Evacuees Desperately Seek Refuge
The main exhibit hall at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds here has become the home of last resort for 68 people who fled the fires that swept through a broad swath of forest and hill towns nearby. And some days, an ambulance shows up. A team of paramedics, wearing protective masks and disposable yellow plastic aprons, wheeled a sick man out of the exhibit hall Monday on a stretcher, another victim of the bitter repercussions of mass displacement that the Camp Fire has created. (Sellers, Wilson and Craig, 11/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Thousands Of Homes Incinerated But Trees Still Standing: Paradise Fire’s Monstrous Path
Driving toward Paradise on the afternoon of Nov. 8, Jonathan Pangburn was less worried about the flames burning through the forest than he was about the smoke. Black and thick, it billowed over the road like a dangerous fog, cutting visibility to less than three feet in places. A member of the incident management team with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Pangburn knew the signs. Gray smoke meant vegetation. Black smoke meant homes, possibly entire city blocks. The Camp fire was no longer just a wildland fire. (Curwen and Serna, 11/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Stunned Residents Start Returning To Paradise In Fire’s Terrible Aftermath
A handful of residents returned to their homes in the burn zone Monday, among the first allowed back since the Camp Fire tore through town Nov. 8, some walking up to unscathed houses while friends and neighbors stood in disbelief in front of piles of ash and twisted metal. (Thadani, Sernoffsky and Tucker, 11/19)
KQED:
Overcoming A Lifetime Of Trauma, Then Facing A New One: Wildfire
Sabrina Hanes has faced a lot of trauma in her life, most of it in her childhood. As part of her healing, she moved to a Northern California town called Paradise. There she built strength and community, but that was upended when the Camp Fire tore through Paradise, burning her home and turning her life upside down. (Klivans, 11/19)
California Healthline:
Paradise Lost: Wildfire Chases Seniors From Retirement Havens To Field Hospitals
After barely getting out of Paradise alive before the Camp Fire turned her town to ash, Patty Saunders, 89, now spends her days and nights in a reclining chair inside the shelter at East Ave Church 16 miles away. It hurts too much to move. She needs a hip replacement and her legs are swollen. Next to her is a portable commode, and when it’s time to go, nurses and volunteers help her up and hold curtains around her to give her some measure of privacy. Rinker, 11/19)
San Jose Mercury News:
Camp Fire: PG&E Power Line Linked To Blaze Had 2012 Problem
In December 2012, a fierce winter storm toppled five steel towers that support the same PG&E transmission line that malfunctioned minutes before the Camp Fire roared to life. Now, six years later, the 115,000-volt Caribou-Palermo transmission line near Poe Dam and the tiny resort town of Pulga is again under the microscope. PG&E reported damage to it around 6:15 a.m. Nov. 8, about 15 minutes before flames were first reported under the high-tension wires, according to a regulatory filing and firefighter radio traffic. Another transmission line in nearby Concow also malfunctioned a half hour later, possible sparking a second fire. (Gafni, 11/19)
Los Angeles Times:
California Fires: Trump Administration Now Blames Devastation On 'Radical Environmentalists'
The political battle between the Trump administration and California over blame for the the devastating wildfires that have killed scores and left nearly 1,000 missing continued Monday. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blamed the state’s fires on “radical environmentalists” who he said have prevented forest management. (Reyes-Velarde and Serna, 11/19)
KQED:
California Firefighters Use Supercomputers To Forecast Wildfires
The deadly blazes burning in California have put a spotlight on the crucial role of evacuation. To save lives and property, firefighters must predict where a fire will spread within moments after it starts. Now, California firefighters are getting some help from a powerful new tool: supercomputers. Crunching real-time data from satellites and weather stations, banks of servers are providing forecasts of how wildfires could behave over the next few hours. (Sommer, 11/19)