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BUTTE COUNTY — The death toll for the Camp Fire soared to 23 on Saturday, as authorities began the grim task of discovering bodies in the ashes of Paradise, a town overcome by the firestorm this week.
The fire, roaring about 100 miles north of Sacramento, is already the most destructive fire in California history, consuming 105,000 acres and destroying nearly 7,000 structures — in its first 48 hours. And it may soon become the deadliest.
“We are doing everything we possibly can to identify those remains and make contact with the next of kin,” said Butte County Sheriff-Coroner Kory Honea. “My heart goes out to those people.”
Four of the bodies were discovered in the town of Concow, just west of where the fire started early Thursday morning. Ten more were discovered Saturday in Paradise, where officials had already announced on Friday nine people were killed.
Only two fires have claimed more lives — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles, which killed 29, and the Oakland Hills fire in 1991, which killed 25. Last year, several fires across Northern California killed 44 people in the Wine Country.
Authorities said they were unable to identify many of the remains because they were so badly burned. They are turning to a Department of Justice DNA lab truck and California State University Chico anthropology team to help identify the remains.
With heavy winds expected to last through Monday, officials fear the historic blaze is far from finished with its ruinous path.
“Dry, dry, dry conditions,” said National Weather Service forecaster Johnnie Powell. “That’s what’s making this super unusual.”
Wind gusts are expected up to 50 mph, triggering Red Flag Warnings for high risk fire danger, and northeasterly winds are pushing the Camp Fire’s thick unhealthy smoke into the Bay Area, canceling outdoor events through the weekend.
Typically, the region sees more rain in the fall, but this year has been especially dry. There may be “a hint of rain” the week of Thanksgiving, Powell said, but until then firefighters are working under tough conditions.
And while air crews tried to take advantage of calmer winds Saturday to attack the deadly blaze burning near Paradise, the fire was just 20 percent contained and spreading on two fronts, to the north toward Stirling City and south toward Lake Oroville, home to the nation’s tallest dam.
In February 2017, more than 180,000 residents were evacuated from the region near the Oroville Dam when a damaged emergency spillway threatened to release a 30-foot wall of water into nearby communities after a winter of heavy rains. Dam officials frantically shored up the spillway and lowered the lake levels to avoid a catastrophe.
Now, construction operations at the Oroville Dam spillways have been shut down because of the fire, said Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Water Resources. The department is wetting down areas at risk of catching fire and placing backup generators in key locations to prepare for a possible power outage or the loss of power lines.
Some workers have lost their homes in the blaze already, and the department was drawing up plans to continue managing water storage and delivery operations remotely in case the dam needs to be evacuated.
“It’s just an awful thing to see happen year after year,” Mellon said of California’s recent rash of deadly wildfires.
Darvis McCoy is bracing for another order to flee his home. He retired from the Santa Clara Valley Water District a few years ago and moved to Oroville.
“Getting a little tired of this,” McCoy said Saturday as he prepared to evacuate for the third time in less than two years. “My wife is back at the house now packing, and I told her don’t bother making the beds in case we lose the house.”
Already, the Camp Fire has forced 52,000 people from their homes. On Saturday, the blaze was still threatening some 15,000 structures, and dozens of people are reportedly still missing.
Marie Wehe’s family was desperate to hear from her after she was last seen leaving her home in the tiny town of Concow, just west of where the fire started, in a silver 2001 Chevy Silverado pickup truck with disabled plates.
“The neighbor thankfully told my grandma to get out, as it was at her back fence,” said her granddaughter, Hollie Weeks. “But we don’t know if she made it out because we have not gotten a call or anything. We think she is stuck in there or didn’t make it.”
Paradise, just days ago home to about 26,000 residents, has been reduced to charred rubble. Few structures remain standing. On Saturday, fire crews and PG&E workers fanned out across the town, combing through ashes, looking in burned out cars and checking power lines.
Old Town Plaza, a popular shopping center, was destroyed. A home for disabled people on Ripley Lane was in ruins, save for a fireplace and chimney, and abandoned wheelchairs left behind. Just east of town, the historic Honey Run Covered Bridge — one of the last surviving bridges of its kind — was gone.
“We are used to fires that we can control at breaks or towns. Not this time,” said Oakland Fire Department Battalion Chief Robert Lipp, who is part of a task force that helps fight fires around the state. “Usually, the towns remain, and that is where people turn for refuge and mental recovery. Where do they go when even the city and services and meeting places are gone?”
Brad Weldon, who had his ailing blind 90-year-old mother at his home, decided to stay in Paradise and battle the flames licking at his home himself with a garden hose.
“It was like fighting an elephant with a piece of spaghetti,” Weldon said.
His home survived. But on Saturday, Weldon — searching for gas to run his generator — was warned by law enforcement he wouldn’t be let back into his neighborhood if he went too far.
In nearby Magalia, Cindy Seeley and about 30 other residents, with their dogs and cats, rushed to safety in the Magalia Pines Baptist Church. Fire resistant and protected by firefighters, the church and its refugees survived while flames burned around it.
“Doors were wide open for anybody and everybody to come,” Seeley said. “Everybody shared. It was a safe haven.”
Not everyone has been so lucky. So far, 6,453 homes have been destroyed and the fire has scorched an area three times the size of San Francisco.
Around 4,050 firefighters and law enforcement from across California and out of state are battling the inferno “all over the perimeter doing different tasks,” said Cal Fire spokesman Kevin Tidwell.
Meanwhile, in Southern California, the Woolsey and Hill fires have forced more than 250,000 people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties to flee their homes, destroying Malibu mansions and houses built deep into canyons in the area.
Despite the terror still shaking so many parts of the state, President Trump took to Twitter Saturday morning to blame poor forest management for California’s fires. The comment drew immediate ire, with many on social media pointing out the federal government maintains the vast majority of California forests and arguing that climate change is the real culprit.
“Lives have been lost,” Governor-elect Gavin Newsom responded. “Entire towns have been burned to the ground. Cars abandoned on the side of the road. People are being forced to flee their homes. This is not a time for partisanship. This is a time for coordinating relief and response and lifting those in need up.”
Staff Photographers Jane Tyska, Karl Mondon and Randy Vazquez contributed reporting.
