Camp Fire Finally 100 Percent Contained After 153K Acres Burned
California’s Camp Fire in Butte County, the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history, is now 100 perfect contained, KRCR News reported. Firefighters had been working to contain the fire for 18 days.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, reported that the Camp Fire burned 153,336 acres and took 85 lives. So far, it is known that the wildfire destroyed 13,696 homes as it traveled Northern California’s communities of Pulga, Concow, Paradise, and Magalia. Cal Fire is still working to assess the damage. At least three firefighters were injured batting the blaze.
The Camp Fire began on Thursday, November 8 near Pulga Road and Camp Creek Road at 6:29 a.m. and very quickly engulfed thousands of homes and structures. Reports of deaths caused by the fire continued to surface for 18 days, as well as reports of missing people. 271 people remained unaccounted for, ABC News learned from the Butte County Sheriff’s Department.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Department recruited a multi-agency task force to capture detailed aerial imagery of the damage in the town of Paradise, which was completely destroyed. The task force also collected video surveys and 360-degree drone panoramas of the town’s major roads. This data will hopefully provide useful information to search and rescue team as they continue to locate missing victims.
Camp Fire now completely contained, with 85 confirmed dead and hundreds still missing https://t.co/FdBa6d8hiQ pic.twitter.com/vvzWsK5sPH
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) November 25, 2018
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea shared a video message through social media on Thanksgiving to update the public about their search efforts. At the time the video was recorded, 820 people from the Butte County Sheriff’s Department were out searching. One hundred law enforcement officers were also out protecting evacuated areas.
“This has been a tough situation for all of us. We’re in this together. We are Butte County strong,” Honea said.
A press release on Saturday stated that, although the fire has been contained, there is still a danger of mudslides and flash flooding with the expected rain.
Two evacuation orders, Berry Creek Zone B and Cherokee Zone B, were lifted only for 24 hours on Saturday. More evacuation orders will be lifted based on factors such as extreme weather and life safety hazards.
The news of the Camp Fire containment comes just a few days after Southern California firefighters fully contained the Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. The Woolsey Fire, which began the same day as the Camp Fire, killed three people and destroyed 1,500 structures in 13 days, NPR reported. The fire burned a total of 96,949 acres and injured three other firefighters.
