Dangerous wildfires are raging California. The Camp Fire has charred 109,000 acres, the Hill Fire burned 4,500, and the Woolsey Fire scorched 83,000.
The death toll from the still-raging California wildfires has risen to 31 after six more bodies were recovered on Sunday, the Butte County sheriff said.
The Woolsey and Hill fires are burning on the outskirts of LA, and now stretch more than 100 square miles across the area, authorities said.
The Camp Fire in northern California destroyed an entire town in less than a day and has killed at least 29 people. Authorities said it was 25% contained by Sunday morning.
The flames are being fueled by dry, hot conditions as well as strong winds.
California wildfires are becoming so frequent and pervasive that officials there say there’s almost no need for the term “wildfire season” anymore.
Three dangerous wildfires are raging in California.
The Butte County Sheriff announced on Sunday that six additional bodies were recovered, bringing the death toll of all three fires to 31 so far, and it’s expected to rise, fire officials told The Associated Press.
The Camp Fire, in northern California, started Thursday morning and quickly charred the entire town of Paradise, which is home to 27,000.
The flames grew so fast — at a pace of 80 football fields per minute — that four people were burned to death in their cars, the Butte County sheriff Korey Honea told the Associated Press. One deceased person was found near a vehicle.
Authorities announced Saturday that two people were found dead in Malibu after the Woolsey and Hill fires raged over 100 square miles of Southern California.
As of 7 a.m. PT on Sunday, the Camp Fire had burned 109,000 acres and was 25% contained.
More than 6,700 structures were destroyed. The Camp Fire is now considered the most destructive wildfire in California history in terms of the number of structures destroyed.
To the south, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, two smaller fires also started Thursday and are now creating havoc for drivers and forcing homeowners to flee. The Woolsey and Hill Fires are burning through parts of Ventura and LA counties. The flames have threatened the homes of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian West and shut down stretches of the 101 freeway.
By Sunday morning, CalFire reported the Woolsey Fire had burned over 83,000 acres and was 10% contained, and the Hill Fire had burned over 4,500 acres and was 70% contained.
Inside the city limits of LA, another smaller fire broke out Friday morning in Griffith Park near the zoo. Firefighters scrambled to reach the area by helicopter since the area was not accessible by truck. The fire scorched about 30 acres before it was fully extinguished Friday.
Southern California fire officials say the flames have burned at least 180 structures. They say that number is likely to increase.
Already this year, 7,578 fires have burned across California, fueled by hot, dry conditions and aggressive winds.
Camp Fire kills at least 29 people
The Camp Fire started about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday. So far, more than 6,700 structures have burned, and thousands more are threatened.
According to the Butte County sheriff’s office, five of the people whose deaths have been confirmed were found near Edgewood Lane in Paradise, California, in or near “vehicles that were overcome by the Camp Fire.” The sheriff’s office was not yet able to identify those victims because of their burn injuries. Other residents ran from the fire, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the county is working with anthropologists from California State University at Chico to help identify bone fragments among ash in the area.
Fire officials told the Associated Press that 228 people were still unaccounted for in the massive wildfire.
The blaze has destroyed more than 6,700 buildings, nearly all of them homes, as it grew to 170 square miles, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire spokesman Bill Murphy warned that gusty winds on Monday could spark “explosive fire behavior,” according to The Associated Press.
California Acting Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Butte County because of the Camp Fire Thursday, and sent a letter to President Donald Trump and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asking for federal assistance.
Smoke from that fire is blanketing wide swaths of Northern California in a gray haze. On Friday morning, people in San Francisco woke up to the smell of smoke and poor air quality, and some donned masks to protect their lungs.
Federal air monitors have suggested that older adults, children, teens, and people with heart and lung conditions should limit their time outside because of the high number of dangerously small pollutants in the air. The air in San Francisco right now is as bad as Beijing, CBS reported.
Hill and Woolsey fires swallow 100 square miles in Ventura and LA counties
Authorities announced Saturday two people were found dead near Mulholland Highway in Malibu Los Angeles County sheriff’s Chief John Benedict said.
The bodies were found in a driveway in celebrity-studded Malibu, The Associated Press reported. Benedict did not explain further, saying detectives are investigating.
Late Friday night, fire officials downgraded the Hill Fire to 4,500 acres burned in Ventura County, and mandatory evacuation orders are in place for people at the Point Mugu Naval Base and California State University Channel Islands, among other areas. The blaze was 70% contained as of Sunday morning.
The Woolsey Fire (the one that forced Kim and Kourtney Kardashian out of their homes) has charred 129 square miles, and CalFire said the blaze was only 10% contained as of 7 a.m. PT on Sunday.
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in areas including Malibu, Topanga, and Thousand Oaks (the same city where a mass shooter killed 12 people on Wednesday), the LA Times reported.
“Imminent threat! Malibu lakes residents must leave area immediately,” the LA County fire department wrote on Twitter Friday morning.
Shortly after noon on Friday, the City of Malibu said on its website that the “fire is now burning out of control and heading into populated areas of Malibu. All residents must evacuate immediately.” LA County Sheriff’s Deputies were knocking on doors there, telling everyone in the star-studded beach town to get out.
You can view the full evacuation orders on the Ventura County Emergency Information site and the LA County Woolsey Fire site.
As a result of the blazes, 250,000 people in Ventura and LA counties had been evacuated as of Friday night, the Times said.
By Friday evening, about 75% of the Ventura County city of Thousand Oaks had been abandoned, fire officials said according to the Associated Press.
Firefighters are racing to keep flames from charring people’s homes, but as the LA Fire Department’s Eric Scott pointed out on Twitter, some houses are better protected than others, since green vegetation can help keep flames back.
On Friday morning, less than 24 hours after the two fires broke out, acting Gov. Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Read More: Why wildfire season is getting longer and stronger
The fires forced the 101 freeway to shut down in a couple different areas.
In Ventura County, a nine-mile southbound stretch from Wendy Drive to Lewis Road where the Hill Fire raged, was closed. In LA County, a section of the freeway from the Mulholland Drive/Valley Circle Boulevard exit to Reyes Adobe Road was closed to traffic both ways after flames from the Woolsey Fire jumped across the highway.
Many of the Ventura County public schools closed on Friday, as well as Pepperdine University, Moorpark Community College, California State University Channel Islands, and Cal Lutheran University.
Wildfire “season,” in California used to run from late summer through the fall, since autumn’s Santa Ana winds help blow flames around.
But as the planet heats up, unseasonably high temperatures and drought conditions are becoming more common. So fire officials in the state are succumbing to the idea that fires may not be limited to any specific season anymore.
Bryan Logan and Kelly McLaughlin contributed reporting.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Tech: Death toll rises to 31, thousands of homes destroyed in 3 dangerous wildfires burning across California
