California wildfires: more rain to aid firefighters while raising flood risk

More rain is forecast for northern over the weekend, boosting efforts to extinguish wildfires that have raged there for two weeks but raising the risk of flash floods and landslides.

Thanksgiving in Paradise: Californians seek meaning after inferno

 

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The weather is also expected to complicate efforts to locate victims of the Camp fire, which virtually obliterated the city of Paradise, 175 miles north-east of San Francisco.

Between 1in and 3in of rain is expected to fall between Friday and Sunday, adding to the 3in that already fell this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

“Flash floods and debris flows will be a particular threat in the wildfire burn areas,” the NWS said, warning of the risk of flash floods through late Friday. “Heavy rainfall at times is possible over the burn areas with the greatest threat expected today.”

That risk is low for thousands of evacuees who are sheltering outside areas prone to mudslides.

At least 84 people died in the Camp fire, making it one of the deadliest US wildfires. Two-thirds of the victims named so far were aged over 65. As many as 560 people are unaccounted for. That number has fluctuated, hitting a high of more than 1,200 over last weekend. The cause of the fire, which destroyed more than 13,500 homes, remains under investigation. Late on Thursday, officials said the blaze was 95% contained across 154,000 acres.

“All containment lines continued to hold throughout the day with the rain assisting in extinguishing hot spots and smoldering fire,” the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) said.

More than 800 volunteers and police officers spent Thanksgiving searching for remains. The Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea, has said the rain will make going through debris more difficult. He has also warned that as all that remains of victims may be “very small bone fragments”, some may never be found.

The county has crews working around the clock, laying sandbags and hay to prevent debris from burned homes polluting the water supply.

“We’re doing everything we can to prepare for this,” Butte county assistant director for public works Radley Ott told KRCR-TV.

Hundreds forced to flee Paradise spent Thanksgiving in warehouses in the nearby city of Chico. Celebrity chefs were among volunteers 

The Woolsey fire, which killed three people and threatened the wealthy beachfront enclave of Malibu near Los Angeles, was declared 100% contained on Wednesday.