{"id":47405,"date":"2017-10-14T05:40:32","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T05:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=47405"},"modified":"2017-10-14T05:40:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T05:40:32","slug":"california-wildfire-death-toll-rises-to-36-as-dangerous-winds-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/california-wildfire-death-toll-rises-to-36-as-dangerous-winds-return.html","title":{"rendered":"California wildfire death toll rises to 36 as dangerous winds return"},"content":{"rendered":"

California wildfire death toll rises to 36 as dangerous winds return<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Nearly a week after flames began fanning across Northern California\u2019s wine country, firefighters have made progress in containing the deadly wildfires even as high winds threaten to return and spark another round of conflagrations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an ominous Friday-afternoon bulletin, the National Weather Service warned that winds are expected to increase dramatically Friday night throughout Northern California, noting that the dangerous conditions will continue \u201cat least through Saturday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An enormous swath of the state is under a red flag warning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf any new fires start, they could spread extremely rapidly,\u201d the NWS said. Dangerous winds and extremely dry \u201cfuels\u201d on the ground \u201calso could cause problems with the current wildfires and the firefighters trying to suppress them,\u201d the NWS noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as the fire still burns across hundreds of acres, the horrific scale of death and destruction is coming into focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least 36 people have been confirmed dead in four counties, many of them elderly, some burned to ashes. One victim was 14 years old.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Taken together, the disastrous blazes \u2014 more than 20 in all since Sunday, including at least six in Sonoma County \u2014 have killed more people than any other California wildfire on record.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds are still missing on Friday. Statewide, an estimated 5,700 structures have been destroyed, including whole neighborhoods reduced to smoldering rubble. About 90,000 people have been displaced by the fires, officials say.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone can comprehend the amount of damage,\u201d Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano told the Los Angeles Times. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating. I\u2019ve only driven maybe 5 percent of the fire area. .\u2009.\u2009. I don\u2019t even think I understand what the damage toll is going to be, and I have a better handle on it than most.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Firefighters have made some significant gains. As of Friday evening, some of the deadliest fires in Sonoma and Napa counties were nearly 50 percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making a lot better progress today,\u201d said Steve Crawford, a Cal Fire operations chief for the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County. \u201cWe told the guys, \u2018Get the boots on the ground. Do hard work today and by this evening when this wind comes up, hopefully we\u2019ll be ahead of the power curve.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As blazes are extinguished, counties have been preparing to get people back to evacuated areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to keep people out of their homes one minute longer than we have to,\u201d Cal Fire Deputy Chief Bret Gouvea said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gov. Jerry Brown and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala D. Harris will visit the disaster zone in Sonoma County Saturday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as emergency personnel battled the fires in and around wine country, authorities began facing questions about the cause of the most damaging blaze, in Sonoma, and whether they did enough to warn vulnerable residents as the flames edged closer to populated areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scrutiny marks the next phase of a disaster that erupted seemingly out of nowhere Sunday night, prompting panic among residents who had no idea that a fire was bearing down on them and emergency workers who said they were stunned at the speed with which the fire progressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, sustained the most damage, with 19 people confirmed dead and 256 still reported missing. The fires have destroyed nearly 3,000 homes and caused $1.2 billion in damage in Santa Rosa, the county seat and gateway to the wine-tourism industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials say this is now the deadliest week of wildfires in state history. The death toll is certain to rise as authorities \u2014 some accompanied by cadaver dogs \u2014 continue to explore the wreckage.<\/span><\/p>\n

As areas become safer to enter, Giordano said deputies had begun the task of searching for the missing and the dead, with bodies showing up in a variety of conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have recovered people where their bodies are intact,\u201d he said, \u201cand we have recovered people where there\u2019s just ash and bone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of the victims who have been identified were elderly, except for one: A 14-year-old who was found near his family\u2019s home in Mendocino County. Kai Logan Shepherd was running away from the fire when he was killed, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the 10 Sonoma County victims who have been named so far, two of whom were identified through medical devices or implants, two through dental records, another by a distinctive tattoo, while others were matched with fingerprints or visuals and other investigative means.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most were from Santa Rosa, and all were older adults, with an average age of 75, the sheriff\u2019s office said. The youngest, Michael John Dornbach, was 57; the oldest, Arthur Tasman Grant, was 95. In neighboring Napa County, an elderly couple who had just celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary were killed on Sunday. Another elderly couple in their 80s were also killed in Mendocino County.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sonoma County spokesman Scott Alonso said it\u2019s not yet clear why the victims were unable to escape the fire. But, he said: \u201cFolks who are elderly have some mobility challenges and are wheelchair-bound. They may not have access to a car. We had calls right when the fires were going on .\u2009.\u2009. folks needed rides. They needed rides to get out of those mandatory evacuation zones.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of 1,485 missing-person reports in Sonoma County, 1,250 had been found safe by Friday afternoon, said Giordano, the sheriff. The whereabouts of the 235 missing were still unknown, although it is possible that a number of them were found but not yet reported to authorities. Others may be out of touch because of power outages and downed cell towers. In most cases, people were removed from a missing-persons list after authorities received calls from families saying they\u2019ve been found.<\/span><\/p>\n

State and county officials faced increasing scrutiny Thursday over how they alerted residents to the fast-moving fires.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Sonoma County, law enforcement officials said they used a Reverse 911 system to call residents\u2019 landlines to evacuate. The county also sent out alerts through a voluntary text-message system. As of June, however, just 10,500 of the county\u2019s half-million residents had signed up for the alerts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alonso, the county spokesman, said officials chose to not send out a countywide alert to cellphones out of fear such a message would incite panic and clog roadways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to target specific neighborhoods that were under fire,\u201d he said. \u201cIf an all-county emergency evacuation was issued, the roads would\u2019ve been jammed [and] our emergency responders would\u2019ve had difficulty getting to where they need to go to evacuate people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the blackened Coffey Park subdivision of Santa Rosa on Thursday, people sifted through the ashes of what used to be their homes or stood shocked to discover their houses had somehow survived.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been through worse,\u201d Sue Fellbaum said. She dug through the wreckage of the house where she had lived in for 28 years, raising two children, surviving breast cancer and losing a husband to brain cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul DiStanislao, who has lived in the neighborhood for 27 years, stood in his driveway and marveled at the smoking ruin that was once a neighbor\u2019s home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like so many here, he fled the neighborhood around 2 a.m. Monday after awaking to find it enveloped in an eerie red glow and a shower of hot embers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Desperate to know what became of his house, he had found a way into his neighborhood, which had been cordoned off by the authorities. He was stunned to discover that the fire had stopped five houses short of his home.<\/span><\/p>\n

The flames had somehow lodged someone\u2019s garage door on top of a streetlight. The charred husk of a Harley-Davidson lay in the middle of a street, one of an endless stream of burned-out vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n

But a few feet from the fire line, at DiStanislao\u2019s house, even the grass was spared.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy am I here?\u201d he asked rhetorically. \u201cHad it jumped the highway a little bit farther, my house would be gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/post-nation\/wp\/2017\/10\/12\/just-ash-and-bone-at-least-29-dead-hundreds-still-missing-as-california-wildfires-rage\/?utm_term=.e4d50a302c7c<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t