The number of people listed as missing in a northern California wildfire jumped past 1,000 as searchers found the remains of eight more people on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s visit.
The number of people unaccounted for almost doubled from 631 to 1,011 in 24 hours as authorities received more reports of people missing and as emergency calls made when the fire broke out were reviewed, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters.
On a positive note, 329 people who had been listed as missing since the fire broke out had so far been accounted for, he said.
Photo: AP
“The information I am providing you is raw data and we find there is the likely possibility that the list contains duplicate names,” he said, adding that some people who had escaped might also be unaware that they were listed as missing.
The eight additional sets of human remains found bring the total number of dead to 71 from the so-called Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive in California history.
The inferno erupted Nov. 8, laying waste to the town of Paradise at the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and sending thousands fleeing.
Trump was set to visit the region yesterday to survey the damage and meet people affected by the fire.
In an interview with Fox News ahead of his visit, Trump doubled down on his previous claim that mismanagement of California’s forests was to blame, although he added that climate change might have contributed “a little bit.”
In the community of Chico, volunteers had erected a tented encampment for others forced from their homes.
The fire has burned 59,000 hectares and was half contained by Friday, authorities said.
They added that 47,200 people had been evacuated because of the fire and nearly 1,200 were living in shelters.
Smoke from the fire forced the closure of public schools in San Francisco on Friday and the shutdown of the city’s iconic cable cars as the air quality index soared to 271, comparable to Dhaka and worse than Kolkata, India.
A blanket of haze enveloped the region and the Golden Gate Bridge was shrouded in thick smog.
“It’s bad,” resident Melvin Karsenti said. “I’ve never seen that many people wear [face] masks.”
Three other people have died in southern California in another blaze dubbed the Woolsey Fire, which engulfed parts of Malibu, destroying the homes of several celebrities.
That inferno, which is about two-thirds the size of the Camp Fire, was close to 70 percent contained by Friday, as authorities predicted they would have it under control by tomorrow.
Adding to the misery of Camp Fire survivors, an outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus has been reported at several shelters.
Public health officials said that 41 people had been sick with vomiting and diarrhea as of Wednesday evening and 25 had to be hospitalized.
While the cause of the Camp Fire is still under investigation, a lawsuit has been filed against the local power company, PG&E, by fire victims claiming negligence.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RSS