Rainstorms heading toward California this week could make it almost impossible to finish recovering and identifying remains of people killed in the deadliest wildfire to ever hit the state, an official said.
“It’s a disheartening situation,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said about the grueling search for remains in areas of Northern California scorched by the so-called Camp Fire.
“As much as I wish that we could get through all of this before the rains come, I don’t know if that’s possible,” Honea said.
Rain is forecast to sweep the area starting midweek and could wash away bone fragments or turn loose ash into a thick, muddy paste, hindering any possibility of identifying more victims.
Identifying those who perished is already a difficult task, as the blaze left behind few remains that can be tested for DNA. Search teams are depending on finding any bits of humanity such as teeth, bone fragments and hip replacements.
“I suspect there are some that will have been completely consumed,” Honea told the Sacramento Bee.
It’s also within the “realm of possibility” that the exact death toll from the blaze — which stood at 77 on Monday morning — will never be known, Honea said.
About 1,000 people are still unaccounted for more than a week after the fire began in Butte County, destroying 10,500 homes.
Like many people, Sadia Quint told CNN she was in limbo because there’s every indication that her uncle, David William Marbury, perished in the blaze, but no one can tell her for sure.
“We already know his house has been burned down and his car was in the garage,” Quint said. “So now we’re just waiting for the sheriff’s department to go out there and let us know if his body’s in there or not.”
Up to 400 people, some aided by cadaver dogs, fanned out Sunday to keep scouring the ruins of homes that stood in the town of Paradise, before it was reduced to ash in the inferno.
When no remains were found, they spray-painted a large orange “O” near the house.
“I just think about bringing relief to the families, closure,” said Robert Panak, a volunteer on a search team from Napa County.
With Post wires
