A sign hangs on a wall at the Paradise Elementary School destroyed by the Camp Fire, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Paradise, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A sign hangs on a wall at the Paradise Elementary School destroyed by the Camp Fire, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Paradise, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)
As thousands of exhausted firefighters appeared to be getting a handle Tuesday on two massive wildfires at opposite ends of California, officials continued to find more bodies amid the charred destruction, with now at least 50 people found dead from the fires.
Firefighters battling the Camp Fire in Northern California and the Woolsey Fire in Southern California had both blazes at least 30 percent contained on Tuesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.
The fires have killed 50 people, destroyed more than 8,000 structures and burned 345-square-miles of land, while officials warned of howling winds that could spawn more monster blazes with the slightest spark.
Officials warned of new extreme fire danger in San Diego County, where ferocious wind gusts of up to 86 mph were recorded early Tuesday morning and could hit 100 mph by the end of the day, according to the National Weather Service.
The blustery condition prompted red flag warnings for the San Diego area, signaling extreme fire danger through at least Wednesday, officials said.
Some schools in San Diego County were closed Tuesday and San Diego Gas & Electric took the precautionary measure of shutting off electricity in some fire-prone areas of the county to avoid new blazes, officials said.
On the fire lines in Northern and Southern California, firefighters, with the help of out-of-state fire crews, were showing progress in their twin battles to subdue the widely-destructive blazes that have blackened a combined acreage larger than the size of New York City.
Camp Fire
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office in Northern California announced Monday night that 13 additional people were confirmed dead from the Camp Fire, which ignited on Thursday and had burned 130,000 acres by Tuesday, according to Cal Fire.
The Sheriff’s Office said 10 of the bodies found Monday were located in the city of Paradise, which was nearly completely destroyed by the blaze. Seven of those people were found in their burned homes.
The death toll from the inferno now stands at 48, making it the deadliest blaze in California history.
There were more than 100 people missing in the Butte County fire zones, though officials were working to track them down. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office has received 1,513 calls for welfare checks and authorities had located 231 people safely by Monday night, officials said.
The fire left widespread catastrophic damage in the area, destroying at least 8,817, according to Cal Fire.
Two prison inmate firefighters were among three injured fighting the Camp Fire, a Cal Fire officials told ABC News.
The fire was 35 percent contained Tuesday evening.
“The entire community of Paradise is a toxic wasteland right now,” Paradise City Council Member Melissa Schuster, who lost her home in the calamity, told ABC News’ “The Start” podcast. “In addition to that, and this is the hardest part for me to even talk about, is the number of fatalities is [among] things that we don’t know at this moment and that’s something that has to be determined before people can move back in.”
She said teams from the Butte County coroner’s office are combing through thousands of destroyed homes and burned cars in Paradise, a town of about 30,000 people.
“We will rebuild our homes, we will rebuild our town stronger, better, safer and more beautiful than ever,” Schuster said.
Woolsey Fire
In Southern California, firefighters had stretched containment lines around 35 percent of the Woolsey Fire. But crews were dealing with a flare-up Tuesday in the Lake Sherwood and Hidden Valley areas of Ventura County that was threatening to take off in the windy weather and sending a huge plume of smoke over the area.
“We are not out of the woods yet. We still have tough conditions,” Chief Mark Lorenzen of the Ventura County Fire Department said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
He said a flare-up broke out about 9 a.m. Pacific time in a canyon that had not previously burned and flames were being pushed up a ridge away from populated areas.
The Woolsey Fire, which also started on Thursday, had burned 96,314 acres by Tuesday, up 2,652 acres from Monday, according to the latest Cal Fire report.
Chief Daryl Osby of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said the Woolsey Fire which spread over 150-square-miles over Los Angeles and Ventura counties, or about the size of Denver, was the largest his department has battled in 100 years.
Despite Tuesday’s flare-up, Osby said, “We are getting the upper hand” on the blaze.
The fire killed two people in Malibu, officials said.
At least 435 structures, including many homes, have been destroyed by the Woolsey Fire, which swept through such celebrity enclaves of Malibu and Calabasas.
“Last night, firefighters continued to hold established containment lines. Firefighters actively fought the fire and worked aggressively,” Cal Fire said in its update Tuesday.
Another fire in the area, the Hill Fire, was 90 percent contained Tuesday after burning 4,531 acres in Ventura County, Cal Fire officials said.
Even as firefighters battled the wind-whipped fires in Southern California, two new fires broke out Monday afternoon on the Los Angeles-Venture County border and sent crews scrambling to fight them. Attacking fires from the ground and air, firefighters were able to quickly smother both blazes.
The largest of the two new blazes sparked up in the Rocky Peak area near a densely populated neighborhood in Semi Valley, grew to 105 acres and prompted the closure of Highway 118 in both directions for more than an hour.
“It just hits home that we are still in significant fire weather and the existing fire is not our only concern,” Chief Mark Lorenzen of the Ventura County Fire Department said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
More than 220,000 acres burned in California
The California wildfires, as shown in the map below, have burned more than 221,314 acres across the state and there was no sign that the weather would cooperate in the firefighter battle anytime soon.
There is no rain in the forecast for the Northern and Southern California in the fire zones through Thanksgiving, National Weather Service meteorologist Aviva Braun told reporters Monday evening.
Dry and near-critical conditions are expected to continue through Wednesday as breezy, northwest winds kick up.
The monstrous fires were threatening to destroy up to 57,000 more homes in Southern California and another 15,500 in Northern California as blustery winds are expected to deal firefighters a menacing challenge throughout the state over the next two days, Cal Fire officials said.
149,000 evacuated
More than 149,000 people throughout the Golden State have evacuated as a result of the fires, outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown told reporters over the weekend.
Batallion Chief Lucas Spellman said Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America”that fires were being fueled by an abundance of vegetation that grew during a spike in precipitation last year only to wither during a new dry spell that has hit the state.
“So, it’s just a recipe for destruction,” Spellman said.
