National: California Wildfires Cause 42 Confirmed Deaths, Expected to Rise

From the archives: Originally published in The Tartan, Radford University’s student-run newspaper, on November 15, 2018. Republished from the preserved historical archive; the article reflects information available at the time.

By Dylan Lepore | dlepore1@radford.edu

The California wildfire is the deadliest and most destructive in the state’s history. The Camp Fire and the Woolsey fire have raised the death toll to 42 people keeping more than 8,000 firefighters working day and night.

The Camp Fire in Paradise, which started on Thursday, Nov. 9, is only about 30 percent contained and has burned 125,000 acres destroying 7,600 structures, most of which were homes.

While within the Woolsey Fire, which began shortly after the Camp Fire on Friday, The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported two people have died inside a stopped vehicle in Malibu and 96,000 acres are charred with 35 percent of it contained west of Los Angeles and parts of Malibu. More than 430 structures destroyed and threaten another 57,000.

About 4,500 acres and 90 percent of the Ventura County Hill Fire is contained, while in San Diego County on Tuesday, winds were gusting up to 86 m.p.h.

Butte County in Northern California’s “Camp Fire” got its name from Camp Creek Road, reported KXTV. Los Angeles and Ventura counties in Southern California’s “Woolsey fire” was named for Woolsey Canyon Road, reported the Los Angeles Daily News.

Firefighters are still searching for more than 200 missing people.

Camp Fire videos from Twitter:

“Oh my God.. embers are going in the car… I can’t hardly breathe…” Coming up on @NBCNightlyNews, video of one family’s terrifying escape from Paradise, California as flames close in. #CampFire #ButteCounty pic.twitter.com/YrIz6ptJ3F

— Gadi Schwartz (@GadiNBC) November 8, 2018

#DEVELOPING From a safe distance…just shot this video of a #FireDevil at the #Campfire near #Paradise. #abc7now @LiveDoppler7 pic.twitter.com/jS5WBsvcnV

— Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) November 9, 2018

#CampFire On Skyway in Paradise CA. Two spot fires on skyway as of 20 mins ago #CalFire pic.twitter.com/6HbjUBYbEP

— Alan (@AlanIngram02) November 8, 2018

It’s like a war zone of abandoned and burned out cars: what a panic it must have been trying to escape the #wildfires #CaliforniaFires #CampFire pic.twitter.com/u6VPyWFrzO

— Evan Kirstel (@evankirstel) November 10, 2018