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More than 600 still missing as town of Paradise reels from unfathomable wildfire losses

CHICO, Calif. —An army of searchers on Friday moved through the rubble of Paradise in a desperate search to find more victims of California’s worst fire as the number of people still missing skyrocketed.
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This aerial photo shows the remains of residences leveled by the wildfire in Paradise, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

CHICO, Calif. —An army of searchers on Friday moved through the rubble of Paradise in a desperate search to find more victims of California’s worst fire as the number of people still missing skyrocketed.

The death toll from the devastating Camp fire rose to 63 Thursday, while the number of people reported missing jumped to 631, authorities said.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters that search crews recovered seven more bodies in the burn area: three in Magalia, three in Paradise and one in Concow.

The California Highway Patrol also said an officer found a body inside a charred car flipped on its side in Paradise, but it was not clear whether that fatality was counted in the sheriff’s toll.

The number of people unaccounted for soared to 631 —up from 130 on Wednesday evening —after authorities combed through additional 911 calls and other reports generated at the peak of the chaotic evacuation. Honea said that number may include some people who are counted twice or others who may not know they were reported missing.

The staggering toll was announced as President Donald Trump made plans to visit California to meet with people affected by the wildfires in what would mark his second trip as president to the nation’s most populous state.

The Camp fire is now by far the worst wildfire in California history. By Thursday evening, the blaze had chewed through 141,000 acres and 11,862 structures, destroying an entire town in a matter of hours. Officials said it could take weeks to complete the search for victims. Thousands of survivors are now without homes and living in shelters and tent cities.

Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted in some areas and reduced to warnings as fire crews on the front lines boosted containment to 40 percent.

“What that means is, if conditions change and fire begins to threaten that area, you have to be ready to go,” Honea said.

The fire is also causing a major public health problem as smoke choked huge swaths of Northern California, including Sacramento and the Bay Area. Dozens of schools across the region canceled classes as authorities urged residents to remain indoors.

At a town hall meeting in Chico late Thursday, Denise Davis showed up to reconnect with her community. There, the 53-year-old Paradise resident saw a neighbor whom she last saw in a driveway carrying someone else’s dog during evacuations.

This community, she said, is why she’s coming back.

“That’s why we’re going to rebuild,” she said.

Jim Broshears, the town’s emergency operations center coordinator, told the audience of more than 100 that the town will rebuild.

“We’re determined to start rebuilding the community —from you, up,” he said. “You are the foundation of the community.”

But Mark Brown, the deputy incident commander for the fire, said the breadth of the devastation was like nothing he’d ever seen.

“It’s at the scale of unprecedented magnitude,” he said.

In Southern California, fire officials were optimistic Thursday that improved weather might help them get the upper hand against the devastating Woolsey fire. The blaze has charred 98,362 acres and claimed three lives in Los Angeles and Ventura counties since it broke out last week. More than 500 structures have been destroyed.

Firefighters stopped the fire’s expansion and increased containment to 62 percent by Thursday evening. The gains came as strong winds that battered the region for three days finally diminished —a welcome development for those on the front lines.

“I think we’re all hoping today will be a turning point for us in this fight,” said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Chris Anthony. “But we’re not ramping down. This is a huge fire, and there’s still a lot of containment that needs to be done.”

Authorities are urging residents to stay cautious as the rainy season approaches and to prepare for potential mudflows in burned-out areas. Rain could arrive in the Los Angeles area late next week, according to extended weather forecasts. But meteorologists with the National Weather Service said it’s too soon to tell how much —if any —rain to expect.

Authorities told Malibu residents this week that Cal Fire’s watershed emergency response team would be surveying areas most at risk for mudflows in the event of a storm.

On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown toured burn zones from the Hill and Woolsey fires. He then met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and state fire officials in Camarillo. Zinke and Brown had toured the scene of the Camp fire that devastated Paradise in Northern California on Wednesday.

At a news conference, Zinke and Brown pledged to work together to help those recovering from the state’s fire siege.

“This is my fourth time to California, all of which have been fires,” Zinke said. “And every time I come back, I say this is the worst fire I’ve seen. Yesterday is the worst fire I’ve seen.

“Paradise, unfortunately, likely will not be the same city.”

In light of the large-scale fires that have devastated California communities in recent years, Brown emphasized the importance of designing safer cities to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“There are fires, and there are going to be more fires,” Brown said. “California is a rich state, but we have to take intelligent precautions with how we design our cities.”