CHICO, Calif. — With 71 people confirmed dead in the Northern California wildfire, authorities Friday tried to whittle a list of the missing that is more than 1000 names long, hoping many of the people on the list got out safely in the chaos over a week ago.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, will travel to the disaster zone today to get a look at the grief and damage caused by the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century. He has blamed the inferno on poor forest management in California.
In an interview taped Friday and scheduled for broadcast on Fox News Sunday, Trump said he was surprised to see images of firefighters removing dried brush near a fire, adding, “This should have been all raked out.”
As the search for bodies continued, Butte County spokesman Miranda Bowersox said the “unaccounted for” list released by the sheriff’s office late Thursday was an effort to put names out there so people can call in to say they are OK.
The roster probably includes some people who fled the blaze and do not realize they’ve been reported missing, Sheriff Kory Honea said.
Some on the list have been confirmed as dead by family members and friends on social media. Others have been located and are safe, but authorities haven’t gotten around to marking them as found.
Tamara Conry said she should never have been on the list.
“My husband and I are not missing and never were!” Conry wrote Thursday night on Face-book. “We have no family looking for us. … I called and left a message to take our names off.”
Authorities compiled the list by going back to listen to all of the dispatch calls they received since the fire started, to make sure they didn’t miss anyone.
In last year’s catastrophic wildfires in California wine country, Sonoma County authorities at one point listed more than 2,000 people as missing. But they slowly whittled the number. In the end, 44 people died in several counties.
The wildfire this time all but razed the town of Paradise, population 27,000, and heavily damaged the outlying communities of Magalia and Concow on Nov. 8, destroying 9,700 houses and 144 apartment buildings, authorities said.
Firefighters continued to gain ground against the blaze, which blackened 222 square miles but was 45 percent contained Friday evening and posed no immediate threat to populated areas. Crews managed to stop it from spreading toward Oroville, population 19,000.
Around 52,000 people have been driven out and have gone to shelters, motels and the homes of friends and relatives. With winter coming many are seeking answers on what assistance will be provided.
At the Chico Mall where the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others set up an assistance center, 68-year-old Richard Wilson sought information about lodging. His wife is nearly bedridden from lupus and fibromyalgia.
“We’re having to stay at a Marriott, which is like $100 a night, and we’re running out of money,” Wilson said as he stood outside in rubber sandals and no socks — the only footwear he had when he fled the flames that destroyed his home.
In Southern California, meanwhile, more residents were being allowed back into their homes near Los Angeles after a blaze torched an area the size of Denver and destroyed more than 600 homes and other structures. The blaze was 69 percent contained, authorities said Friday evening.
At least three deaths were reported.
Schools across a large part of the state were closed because of smoke, and San Francisco’s world-famous open-air cable cars were pulled off the streets.
Information for this article was contributed by Janie Har and Olga Rodriguez of The Associated Press.