Camp Fire Death Toll at 48 and Expected to Climb [Maps, Photos]
Around 7,600 homes and around 260 businesses have been destroyed. More have been damaged. Check out the online Camp Fire Structure Status map for more.
Overnight the fire continued to grow but calmer winds moderated its spread. Today, it is estimated to have reached 135,000 acres and is about 35% contained.
Over 52,000 people have been evacuated many of them with no homes to return to once the fire is out.
Below we have maps and a breakdown of what to expect.
The Plan:
The fire is continuing to creep to the north, east, and south. The west along the Hwy 99 containment line is holding.Firefighters have been putting in dozer lines and doing backfiring. They are working particularly hard to keep the wildfire from reaching Stirling City and into Paradise Pines on the north.
“We use fire to fight fire,” explained Humboldt County resident Diana Totten who is the Division U Supervisor. “Those backfires are a very good strategy…Now the fuels are gone ahead of the coming fire.”
Several factors helped, Totten said. “The northeast winds were in our favor.”
She said, “We work with a lot of dynamics–the fuel, the weather, the topography, and the personnel [when using backfires].” Each of them have to have the right conditions for the backfires work correctly, she said. “The biggest dynamic needed for success is having people who are really well trained. It takes hundreds of people all going with one goal in mind.”
She said her crews are doing phenomenal work.
However, the destruction and horror of the catastrophic wildfire can be hard on crews in the area, she said. “I’m still finding animals that have been locked in houses and horses with phone numbers spray-painted on their side.”
The burned buildings, the animals suffering, and the weight of knowing how much fellow humans have lost is difficult, she explained. “After driving through the devastation in the town of Paradise, it helps to have the successes of places like Stirling City so that when we drive home at night we feel hope,” she said.
Images:
Trinity, Mendocino, and Humboldt County crews are in Butte County helping. Like soldiers, the images they so often send home are of the good times not the horrific experiences that may haunt them for months.
The Weather:
Though the fire wasn’t quite as active yesterday, relatively low humidity today (14-20% minimums) and dry vegetation have the potential to feed the fire and cause rapid growth.
However, winds are expected to be light during the day. Tonight gusts could reach 15 mph (20 mph in the Feather River drainage) and increase the danger of spotting.
The Roads:
Caltrans District 3 is reporting these closures: (For the most recent information go to http://QuickMap.dot.ca.gov)Numerous county roads are also closed.
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So many rising to the occasion in so many ways. Thank you again Kym.
I don’t even know what to say anymore 48 people dead almost 8,000 homes gone so glad to see that you’re helping the animals they’re so defenseless please fire fighters be very careful we need you and we care for you God bless everyone in need
Thank you agian Kym for keeping us updated on this, please try and get some rest.
So many elderly and retirees in the lower pines along the golf course…. Death count will be much higher I am afraid. Upper pines also full of retirees. Just neighborhood after neighborhood up there are nothing but older people. I seen a picture of my wifes parents house burnt to ground and they have’nt mapped their area yet. Alot destroyed there not reported yet.
A good friend of my family lived in Paradise. He rescued horses from all over the states but mainly Texas. Before all of this he had just rescued a horse that was wild and thank god it still was when this fire started. He had three other horses that he had to release with the wild one but he knew the wild one still had it’s survival instincts and was hoping that the other 3 would follow it. He lost everything including a goat and some cats. On the day they would let him go back to where his place had been, he went looking for his horses and found them with the wild one. That made him so happy because he had been in a fire in Oroville and had lost his home and everything there, so this fire hit him pretty hard. Not because of his home being gone but because of his goat cats and horses. He loves any and all things that have life.
Thank you for sharing this anecdote. It helps.
I have been trying to get my Airbnb open to evacuees for free for 4 days. Airbnb arbitrarily sets up a geographic area the deem appropriate for doing this and it is way to small for a disaster of this magnitude, 52,000 homeless is mindboggling. If you are anywhere not in the geographic area on this page
https://www.airbnb.com/welcome/evacuees/buttecounty
and want to open your Airbnb for free to these people, contact Airbnb and tell them to expand their geographic area for this disaster to include you. Especially if you have room for animals.
Some just want to stay close to what they use to call home.
Chuck U, Thank you so much for offering this!!!
Airbnb has now officially refused to expand the geographic area so we can’t get listed as a free resource. The cutoff line runs right though our property but the rental is 200yds on the wrong side. So stupid, especially since we can accommodate animals. I’ll contact the Red Cross. If anyone knows someone leave contact info.
If you require compensation for providing refuge to Camp Fire victims, perhaps you should consider setting up a GoFundMe?
That’s not what she’s asking. She just trying to let the victims know that they have space for them. She hasn’t talked money just heart freely given.
Don’t want any compensation at all, I just want to be listed on the Airbnb Camp Fire free housing page. Also if you are in that program you get all the legal protections and insurance.
Cool. Thanks for clarifying. I did not understand.
May sound crazy, but James Woods is getting people in contact with their families, posting openings for animal shelter, AND tweeting out offers for accommodating fire refugees:
https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods
https://twitter.com/hashtag/CampFireJamesWoods
Thank you for those links.
Chuck, I sent you an email about someone who is a victim of the Camp Fire.
David Felt and your crew please be safe. I know the people from that area really appreciate all the help they can obtain. The pictures just take my breath away. I am deeply saddened for all the wonderful lives that have been lost. May God bless them.
Marty Stockel
56 now
“We do know that electric company PG&E experienced a problem with an electrical transmission line near the site of the fire, minutes before it broke out,” according to CBS News, and now criminal Governor has signed a bill allowing the company to CHARGE its customers whatever is necessary to pay for all of the lawsuits and losses that are coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHIqycFgCBc&feature=em-uploademail 10:59 Nov. 14