California fires live updates: Camp fire death toll at 86; 3 people still missing

California’s deadliest blaze on record has claimed 86 lives.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The death toll from the devastating Camp fire in Butte County, Calif., rose to 86 after an 80-year-old man died of his burn injuries, authorities said Tuesday.

Larry Smith of Paradise was burned Nov. 8 while attempting to put out flames that engulfed his car, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said. He was flown to the UC Davis Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center, where he died Nov. 25.

Authorities also released the name of one other person who died in the blaze: Shirlee Teays, 90, of Paradise.

Of the 86 people killed, 52 have been identified. Three people are still missing.

A recovery team searches for human remains after the Camp fire.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office on Monday released the names of three more victims who died in the Camp fire.

Authorities identified the following people and have notified their families:

1. Rafaela Andrade, 84, of Paradise
2. Don Shores, 70, of Magalia
3. Jean Forsman, 83, of Magalia

Of the 85 people killed in California’s deadliest blaze on record, 50 have been identified. Three people remain missing.

Firefighter Adan Rodriguez douses hot spots on Mulholland Drive last month.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County coroner’s officials Monday identified a mother and son who died trying to escape flames in the destructive Woolsey fire.

Shoushan Baklayan, 82, and her son Anthony Noubar Baklayan, 57, died in a car Nov. 9 in the 33100 block of Mulholland Highway in Malibu, coroner’s officials said.

Authorities said that the younger Baklayan died of effects of thermal injuries; investigators have not determined a cause of death for his mother.

The two were among three people who died in the blaze. The third victim has not been identified.

The family released a statement through their spokesman, Brian Glicklich, in which they asked for privacy as they continue to grieve.

The blaze, which erupted Nov. 8, ripped through nearly 97,000 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, destroying 1,500 structures.

Firefighters move heavy debris while searching for human remains at a destroyed residence 19 days after the Camp fire in Paradise, Calif.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office has released the names of three more people who died in the Camp fire.

Sheriff’s officials said Wednesday that the remains of the following people had been identified and their relatives had been notified:

• Sally Gamboa, 69, Paradise
• Joy Porter, 72, Paradise
• Dennis Clark, 49, Paradise

California’s worst wildfire killed 85 people when it tore through Butte County on Nov. 8. Officials say 10 residents are still missing.

×

Weeks after the Camp fire destroyed more than 18,000 structures in California’s Butte County, volunteers from search-and-rescue teams nationwide continue to look for human remains in the rubble.

The names of 10 more victims of the Camp fire were released Monday by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, which has notified the next of kin.

• Helen Pace, 84, Paradise
• Gary Hunter, 67, Magalia
• Beverly Powers, 64, Paradise
• Sheila Santos, 64, Paradise
• Andrew Downer, 54, Paradise
• Lou Herrera, 86, Paradise
• TK Huff, 71, Concow
• Gordon Dise, 66, Chico
• James Garner, 63, Magalia
• Robert Duvall, 76, Paradise

California’s worst wildfire has killed 85 people, and 11 residents in the Northern California counties where the blaze tore through in early November are still missing.

Homes leveled by the Camp fire in Paradise, Calif.

(Noah Berger / Associated Press)

Authorities in Butte County revised the Camp fire death toll to 85 after investigators determined that, in three cases, human remains collected in multiple bags belonged to a single individual.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said investigators had identified 43 victims.

For weeks, hundreds of searchers scoured 18,000 structures destroyed by the blaze looking for human remains, going over some areas more than once. Honea advised residents who head back to their neighborhoods in coming days to call the sheriff’s office if they find bones or bone fragments.

Investigators have accounted for all but 11 people reported missing in the wildfire.

Crews have been working to clear tree hazards on public roads, but urged residents to be cautious because they have not assessed private properties.

Over the last few weeks, some Paradise evacuees have made a Best Western hotel home. They didn’t know each other before the fire, though they lived in the same small town for years and frequented the same haunts.

They have formed a little community at the Corning hotel around the waffle maker during breakfast, passing one another in the elevator and lounging in the lobby,

Around the table, they trade stories of dodging embers and feelings of guilt. Together, they try to make sense of the tragedy that unites them.

They are among thousands of Paradise residents who fled their homes the day the fire started and have not been allowed to return since. There is growing frustration at the pace of getting people back to see what is left of their properties as well as longer-term shelter plans for those who lost their homes.

Read More

As a series of rainstorms begins to move across the state, officials in areas recently scarred by wildfires are on high alert for potential mudslides and flash flooding.

The National Weather Service issued a warning of possible flash flooding in three counties in Northern California in advance of a storm expected to arrive late Wednesday.

Forecasters predict the second in a series of three storm systems this week could drop more than an inch of rain on the Camp fire burn area in Butte County; the Carr, Delta and Hirz fires burn areas in Shasta County; and the Mendocino Complex fire scar in Lake County.

Read More

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke returned to Paradise, Calif., on Monday, saying the cost of California’s worst fires would probably be in the billions and that care would have to be taken in rebuilding the city.

“When we rebuild, having a frank discussion whether it’s appropriate to rebuild every place is an important part of the equation,” he told the Associated Press in an interview.

Authorities are coming to terms with the possibility that the search for victims of the Camp fire might never be complete and that some human remains won’t ever be recovered.

“Is it possible that there could be a circumstance where someone was completely consumed by fire and therefore we wouldn’t have something that we could collect? I would say it is within the realm of possibility, unfortunately,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Monday.

“There’s nothing easy about this. This is just an unprecedented situation,” he added.

Read the latest here.

The first of three storm systems expected in wildfire-ravaged Butte County, Calif., dropped a smattering of rain Tuesday. Forecasters predicted about an inch of precipitation, saying the relatively weak system would sputter out by early Wednesday.

But a stronger storm will roll in late Wednesday, bringing with it the potential for debris flows and up to 3 inches of rain through Thursday night.

The Butte County Emergency Operations Center has prepared for the rain by clearing drainage culverts of debris, said Matt Gates, public information officer for the Paradise Police Department.

The California Conservation Corps also has been working on erosion-control measures for mountain slopes filled with fire-damaged pine and chaparral.

“Ash doesn’t absorb water, which complicates things,” Gates said.

A third storm could bring 2½ to 4 inches of rain to the charred region from Friday through Sunday.

“It’s the intensity that can cause debris flows,” said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “If the rain comes over time, there’s some opportunity for it to absorb or gradually run off. When we have rapid runoff, that’s when it can bring down entire hillsides.”

The soil in recently burned areas cannot absorb significant amounts of rainwater, so excessive precipitation can lead to fast-moving flows containing mud, debris and even trees and boulders. The devastation can be deadly and often comes without warning.

The rain is also expected to complicate the already challenging search for human remains among the rubble of the Camp fire.

Typically, crews scoop fire debris into a screen and sift it, looking for bone or bone fragments, but the ash and rain have mixed to form a clay-like substance, making the task nearly impossible. Officials have had to bring in water and gently wash away the clay to expose potential human remains in the charred mess.

A recovery team searches for human remains after the deadly Camp fire.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea on Monday released the names of 16 more people who died in the Camp fire.

The death toll from California’s worst fire jumped to 88, with 203 people still missing, officials said.

Authorities released the the latest of names after notifying the victims’ next of kin.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, they are:

1. Joyce Acheson, 78, of Paradise.
2. Carol Arrington, 88, of Paradise.
3. David Bradburd, 70, of Paradise.
4. Larry Brown, 72, of Paradise.
5. Joanne Caddy, 75, of Magalia.
6. Elizabeth Gaal, 80, of Paradise.
7. Richard Jay Garrett, 58, of Concow.
8. Evva Holt, 85, of Paradise.
9. Sara Magnuson, 75, of Paradise.
10. Joanne Malarkey, 90, of Paradise.
11. John Malarkey, 89, of Paradise.
12. Deborah Morningstar, 66, of Paradise.
13. Vernice Regan, 95, of Paradise.
14. Russel Stewart, 63, of Paradise.
15. Victoria Taft, 67, of Paradise.
16. David Young, 69, of Concow.

The names of six others who died in the fire were released last week.

Of the 88 dead, 54 have been tentatively identified.

Officials say a mountain lion tracked by researchers probably died in a wildfire that tore through Southern California communities and wilderness areas.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area tweeted Monday that there’s been no signal from the GPS collar on the young mountain lion dubbed P-74 since Nov. 9. That’s the day the Woolsey fire swept into the central part of the Santa Monica Mountains northwest of Los Angeles.

P-74 was a male born last year.

Several other mountain lions and bobcats monitored by scientists in the area have been located.

The huge fire charred a swath of national park land that’s home to the big cats and popular among hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders.

The blaze burned 1,600 structures in and around Malibu and left three people dead.

The death toll from California’s worst fire jumped to 88 on Monday with 203 people still missing, officials said.

Searchers have spent the last two weeks combing through the remains of Paradise, where much of the city was burned in the Camp fire.

Officials said Monday that they had covered a good portion of the city. It’s been a grim task, with most of the remains being found as just bones or bone fragments.

The fire, which burned more than 14,000 homes in the Paradise region, was fully contained Sunday morning.

A new rainstorm will move into the area in the coming days, and officials are worried that could make search efforts more difficult.

Officials say a mountain lion tracked by researchers probably died in a wildfire that tore through Southern California communities and wilderness areas.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area tweeted Monday that there’s been no signal from the GPS collar on the young mountain lion dubbed P-74 since Nov. 9. That’s the day the Woolsey fire swept into the central part of the Santa Monica Mountains northwest of Los Angeles.

P-74 was a male born last year.

Several other mountain lions and bobcats monitored by scientists in the area have been located.

The huge fire charred a swath of national park land that’s home to the big cats and popular among hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders.

The blaze burned 1,600 structures in and around Malibu and left three people dead.

As of Sunday night, the number of people missing stands at 296 in California’s worst wildfire on record.

The Butte County Sheriff’s Department said the death toll was at 85. Searchers spent the day looking for remains in the Paradise area, where 14,000 homes were lost in the Camp fire.

The number of missing has been going down as officials connect with people whose names are on the list. As of last week, it topped 1,000.

At the Ridgewood mobile home park for senior citizens in Paradise on Sunday, more than 100 search and rescue workers in white jumpsuits and gas masks combed through the rubble with shovels and rakes.

The surrounding pine trees were singed, ringing a neighborhood where every home had been reduced to charred, twisted wreckage.

Last week, searchers found the remains of two people there, said Sgt. Dave Thompson of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday, the grim, painstaking task yielded some bones, including those of two small dogs. But none were human.

The searchers, many of whom are volunteers, also found a safe full of coins as they combed through Ridgewood and Ponderosa Mobile Estates next door.

“We’re going trailer by trailer, piece by piece, turning it over for anything that looks human,” said Thompson, who led an operation that drew searchers from counties such as Marin, Contra Costa, Shasta and Kern, as well as the National Guard and California Conservation Corps.

Facebook photos before the fire of the Ridgewood community at Pentz and Wagstaff roads, where residents were 55 years and older, showed tidy mobile homes with well-kept gardens.

The fire came over the ridge very fast, and senior citizens with limited mobility could have had trouble fleeing, Thompson said.

As teams wrapped up their work, Thompson dispatched them to other neighborhoods to continue searching for people who lost their lives in the fire.

Operations at disaster assistance centers in Malibu and Agoura Hills have been extended to keep helping residents affected by the Woolsey fire.

The centers, located at the former Malibu Courthouse and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in Agoura Hills, are scheduled to be open through Dec. 8. Hours of operation are between 1 to 8 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

At the centers, residents affected by the fire can get help filing insurance claims and applying for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They can also receive advice on how to clean up, repair and rebuild their properties.

The Woolsey fire destroyed 1,643 structures as it swept through Oak Park and Ventura County and into Malibu, according to a final report released Sunday.

That makes it one of the most destructive fires in Southern California history, though it pales in comparison to the 14,000 homes lost in the Camp fire in Butte County.

Hundreds of evacuees from the Malibu, Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks areas spent the holiday weekend returning to their burned-out neighborhoods to survey their damaged or destroyed homes and to begin rebuilding their lives. Some were still debating whether to stay or leave.

The Woolsey fire scorched more than 96,000 acres and left three people dead before it was fully contained on Thanksgiving Day, fire officials said.

Pono Barnes, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said firefighters are working on encouraging residents to prepare for winter rainstorms that could move over the burn area.

“The whole landscape in the area has changed,” Barnes said. “The vegetation that was there to hold the ground together was burned off.”

Light rains in the area have assisted firefighters in achieving 100% containment of Northern California’s devastating Camp fire, but most evacuations and road closures remain in effect. More than 1,000 firefighters remain on site, assisting with search and recovery efforts.

Full containment came as a big relief for fire officials, who noted that the rain sped up the process. Full containment was originally projected for Nov. 30.

“We didn’t get mudslides, so that was good,” said Brigitte Foster, fire prevention officer for the Lassen National Forest and spokeswoman for fire officials regarding the Camp fire. “We got enough to hamper down on the fire.”

The rains also gave officials the ability to reduce the number of fire personnel on duty and allow some to go home for the holiday weekend.

“We still have plenty of resources out there to work from the containment line and make sure there are no smoldering spots along the edge,” Foster said. “We still have search and rescue teams working in the area.”

And in preparation for residents being allowed to return to burn areas and assess property damage, crews were helping clear roadways and remove hazardous materials such as trees that could fall down. It’s unknown when evacuees will be able to return.

There are concerns about another storm approaching burn areas this week.

Rain is expected to move into the Camp fire burn areas beginning Tuesday and continue through the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service. Up to 3 inches could fall in some lower elevations, forecasters said. On Wednesday, the same system is expected to deliver a half-inch to 2 inches in burn areas in Southern California.

Along Trancas Canyon Road on Saturday, a woman snapped photos of the blackened wreckage of what was once an alcohol and drug treatment center. A wedge of scorched wall stood at a tilt, like a listing ship, peering over the Pacific below. Someone had taped business cards to a wall bordering the site, advertising a restoration business, but it was hard to imagine what could be restored.

The woman, who declined to give her name, said she had been sober nearly seven months. “This place saved my life,” she said.

She stayed in Newbury Park after she was evacuated, and it was the first time she had gotten a moment to see what had become of Creative Care Inc. There were people she had gotten to know there who are now living out of state and wanted photos. “It’s sad,” she said. “But it’s just material.

“I have sobriety. I have life,” she said. “And they’ll rebuild.”

Read more here.

Across Butte County — a primarily agricultural area known for its walnut, almond and rice farms — towns are struggling to absorb the roughly 50,000 people displaced by the Camp fire. Through no fault of their own, the evacuees’ arrival has worsened the state’s housing crisis and raised the possibility that they could be evicted from the region again, not by fire but by a scarcity of suitable dwellings.

Hotels and motels from Sacramento to Redding are full. The vacancy rate in the rental market, which hovered around 3% before the fire, has fallen to near zero. Unable to find single-family homes in the area, evacuees have resorted to renting individual bedrooms, buying recreational vehicles and purchasing travel trailers. Others are simply leaving California for other Western states with a lower cost of living.

Read more here.

The worst fire in California history reached full containment Sunday morning, a milestone for a catastrophic inferno that killed at least 85 people with nearly 250 people still missing weeks later.

The Camp fire is now 100% contained, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday, after burning nearly 14,000 homes and consuming 153,000 acres in and around Paradise in Butte County.

Much of Paradise was lost in the fire, and search and rescue crews will continue looking through the ruins for more victims.

At one point, there were more than 1,300 people listed as missing from the fire. But that number has been dropping in recent days. Over the weekend, it declined from more than 400 to 249 as officials were able to confirm more people on the list were actually alive.

Several days of rain last week helped firefighters get a handle on the fire.

Authorities expect the removal of ash and other toxic debris from the fire will be the largest such effort ever undertaken by state officials.

The amount of debris is expected to dwarf the cleanup effort undertaken from last year’s Northern California fires. That effort led to more than 2 million tons of toxic debris removed from 6,000 properties in seven California counties: Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, Butte, Yuba and Nevada, said Eric Lamoureux of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

County, state and federal governments jump start the process of removal of toxic ash and other debris, and can do so at no cost to the owner, Lamoureux said. Typically, about 80% of owners give the government permission to conduct the cleanup operations, with the rest opting to do it themselves.

Read More

As this region still reels from the worst fire in California history, educators are faced with the challenging task of reopening schools even as the firefighters continue their work and searchers scour the area for more victims.

They are working to identify replacement classroom space for schools that were burned to ashes during the fire.

Paradise Unified School District was hardest hit, with multiple school buildings lost to the fires. Charter schools in the area also suffered.

Read more here.

The worst fire in California remained 95% contained Saturday morning.

Rains helped put out the flames but also made it harder for firefighters to access some areas.

“The fireline that remains uncontained is located in steep and rugged terrain where it is unsafe for firefighters to access due to the heavy rains,” CalFire said in a statement.

With the rain passing, officials hope to intensify search and rescue efforts, with more than 400 still reported missing.

The fire burned 153,336 acres and nearly 14,000 homes, with 84 dead.

In Malibu, some residents who evacuated from the Woolsey fire were still waiting to return home as officials worked to restore utilities and road access. That fire, which charred 96,949 acres and destroyed 1,643 structures, is 100% contained. Three people were killed.

“There is still a lot of work to be done,” said Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Pono Barnes. “Strike teams are in the area helping residents repopulate.”

Firefighters’ biggest job Friday was working with Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Co., Barnes said.

“There was quite a bit of infrastructure damaged during the burn,” he said. “Edison is working to replace downed power lines and burned-out power poles.”

As many as 2,000 power poles have been replaced, he said.

“That is why we still have some evacuations in place,” Barnes added.

The grim search for victims continued in Paradise on Saturday amid the rain.

Times photographer Gina Ferazzi was struck by the image of an abandoned wheelchair and gurney in front of the destroyed Cypress Meadows post-acute medical facility.

“The rain is making the devastation in Paradise even more eerie and sad,” she wrote.

A new federal report found that climate change is taking an increasing toll on communities across the United States. It projects widespread and growing devastation as increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, worsening wildfires, more intense storms and other cascading effects harm our ecosystems, infrastructure and society.

Among the findings: The area burned across the western U.S. from 1984 to 2015 was twice what it would have been if climate change had not occurred, according to analyses cited in the report.

“Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities,” the report says. “But the severity of future impacts will depend largely on actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the changes that will occur.”

The report comes as California faces a series of devastating wildfires that have claimed scores of lives and burned thousands of homes.

Read more on the report here.

With many of their homes damaged or destroyed in the state’s most devastating wildfire on record, the students of Paradise High School face an uncertain future.

On Tuesday, a man they have never met from a city more than 500 miles away will give them a gift he hopes will provide at least a small measure of security, support and comfort in a dark hour.

Rancho Santa Fe businessman Bob Wilson plans to personally deliver a $1,000 check to each of the school’s 980 students and 105 employees in Chico at a venue that has yet to be determined. That’s a total of $1 million for the wildfire victims to use as they see fit, no strings attached.

Read More

Firefighters battling California’s deadliest fire on record continued to make progress Friday, with containment growing to 95% and the number of homes burned at nearly 14,000.

The Camp fire has scorched more than 153,000 acres and killed at least 84 people in Butte County, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials. But hundreds of residents are still missing, and thousands more have been displaced by the massive blaze.

Read More

Rain falls Thursday on the site of a home destroyed by the Camp fire.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Another day of searching, another grim finding.

The death toll from the Camp fire rose by one Thursday to 84, on a day when rain seemed to halt further growth of the state’s deadliest blaze.

By Thursday evening, the Jarbo Gap, where the fire probably started, had received just over an inch of rain in the preceding 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service. Rain totals varied across the region.

The forecast calls for more.

In the nearby town of Paradise, which was nearly obliterated by the fire, the forecast for Thursday night was more showers, heavy at times, with winds of 18 to 24 mph and gusts as high as 37 mph.

Such winds would have fueled the fire just days ago, but instead they are harbingers of precipitation that is expected to drop three-quarters of an inch to 1 inch of rainfall Thursday night.

Another 1 to 2½ inches could fall Friday.

The wet weather has helped bring containment of the fire to an estimated 95% as of Thursday evening. But it also brought damp, chilly discomfort to evacuees living in tents — thousands of residents have been displaced — and new worries about potentially deadly mudslides in burned areas. A flash-flood watch and wind advisory will remain in effect until 4 p.m. Friday.

The rain also complicates the search for human remains, which could be washed away. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for.

Crews also are involved in another grim tally, figuring out exactly which homes and business burned. Officials have released a preliminary interactive map that shows the damage, house by house.

Camp fire evacuees now have rain to contend with as they occupy tents in a Walmart parking lot in Chico, Calif.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Schools in Malibu survived the Woolsey fire almost intact but they got very dirty, and cleanup efforts will keep campuses closed even as residents are allowed to return to their properties.

The fire killed three people, burned 97,000 acres and destroyed 1,500 structures. Malibu’s four schools have been closed since Nov. 9, when they were included in the mandatory evacuation zones.

The tentative date to reopen Webster Elementary is Nov. 28. Point Dume Marine Science School is scheduled to reopen Dec. 3. Juan Cabrillo Elementary School should be ready between Dec. 3 and Dec. 5, pending results of air testing inside and outside for traces of lead, asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Malibu High will be back in business between Dec. 4 and Dec. 10

The district had planned a swifter reopening but slowed down out of an abundance of caution, spokeswoman Gail Pinsker said.

“We are hearing from parents that they want thorough cleaning and testing, which we plan, but the cleaning and testing and waiting for results take a day to more than a week,” she said.

Three other districts in the region also had closed campuses. Schools in Conejo Valley Unified, Oak Park Unified and Las Virgenes Unified are aiming to reopen Monday.

Residents who had to evacuate included Las Virgenes Supt. Daniel Stepenosky, who estimated that about 90 families with district students lost their homes, as did two staff members.

In a video update on social media, he said that everyone is eager for schools to reopen: “Everyone wants to get back to a state of normalcy, to be honest with you.”

To that end, a crew of 200 has been working for several days, and the district had brought in 300 air scrubbers and 300 hydroxyl deodorizers. Playgrounds that are not ready by Monday will be cordoned off.

Stepenosky said that a “full-court press” will continue because “the schools are really boring when they’re empty.”

Times photographer Marcus Yam shared on Twitter a very personal photo essay about the victims of Paradise.

“This #thanksgiving we should to take a moment for the victims of the #CampFire,” he wrote. “So many families will not be spending #Thanksgiving in the comfort of their own homes. Take a moment to think about them.

Read the whole thread here.

Camp fire victims have a Thanksgiving dinner in Chico, Calif.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Anna Longacre booked her flight home months ago.

Back then, the 26-year-old Army sergeant imagined the comforts that awaited her Thanksgiving week, the things that never change no matter how far away from Paradise, Calif., the military takes her.

The old cast-iron stove that warmed the entire house during winter. The small stone-fruit orchard that ran along the side and back. Her dad’s breakfast hash browns.

Anna’s family had lived on their 3-acre lot in the Sierra Nevada foothills for 20 years. She moved away at 18 and has been stationed in Afghanistan, South Korea and Kansas.

But her heart stayed in Paradise.

Instead of being home Thanksgiving morning, she found herself in a cavernous auditorium at Cal State Chico, where turkey and fixings had been prepared for evacuees of California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire.

She dragged her dad, Bruce, with her. She wanted to get him out of her grandma’s house in Chico, where they’d been staying with her mom and dogs. And she had heard celebrity chefs Guy Fieri and José Andrés were making the food. It couldn’t hurt to try and have a little fun, she thought, despite everything.

The father and daughter were greeted by volunteers in plush turkey hats and handed sanitary wipes at the door.

Read more here.

A young Camp fire evacuee waits in line to receive a free Thanksgiving meal Thursday in Chico, Calif.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

As of Thanksgiving Day, the devastation logged by the Camp fire in Northern California was nearly 14,000 homes, more than 150,000 acres and at least 83 lives.

Some of the thousands displaced by the fire, mostly from the town of Paradise, said they nonetheless counted themselves among the lucky and found things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Times reporters on the ground in Butte County asked people about the meaning of this holiday.

Here are their stories.

California’s costs to fight two deadly wildfires that ignited less than two weeks ago have already topped $118 million — a sizable financial hit to a program that needed an unexpected cash infusion just two months ago.

Cal Fire officials said Tuesday that $589.7 million has been paid out by the state’s fire emergency, or “e-fund,” account since July 1. Officials are poised to free up additional dollars before lawmakers consider a new state budget early next year.

Read more here.

Butte County Dist. Atty. Mike Ramsey warned that scam artists are targeting Paradise fire victims seeking to rent housing.

“We have seen people who have no right to a particular apartment that go and rent out that apartment and take people’s money. Be very careful. Red flag: If it’s too good to be true, it is,” Ramsey said.

Another scam already happening are fraudulent GoFundMe websites seeking contributions for fire victims, he said. “We encourage folks to go to the Butte County website to take a look at areas where you can legitimately and safely give your charitable dollars to,” he said.

He also urged residents to beware of scammers seeking to collect personal information under the guise of pretending to be insurance agents or a sheriff’s deputy seeking to cross names off the list of the missing. “It will be obvious that these are scammers,” he said. “Be very, very careful of giving any sort of personal information that will be financially disastrous to you,” he said.

There have been 11 cases of looting, he said, with suspects mostly interested in vehicles, such as motor homes, left behind by fire victims that fled.

Rapid DNA analysis is being used to identify dozens of California fire victims burned beyond recognition. Of 83 victims, sheriff’s officials have made tentative identifications on 58 of them, but they await DNA confirmation.

“We’re working diligently to identify those individuals so that we can contact their next of kin and notify them,” said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

It used to be that DNA analysis could take months before answers would firm up, but now DNA analysis can be done within a matter of hours, Jim Davis of Ande, a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in rapid DNA analysis, said at a press conference in Chico on Wednesday.

Davis said his company has been asked by the sheriff to use its rapid DNA analysis method to help identify victims in a mass casualty incident the first time his company has been asked to do so for this purpose.

Davis said he’s working with the coroner’s office in Sacramento County to collect tissue samples from the autopsies of the deceased; 80% of the time, those samples are usable for DNA analysis. Butte County sheriff and California Department of Justice officials are coordinating the collection of DNA samples from living relatives.

The rains in Northern California have finally improved the air quality.

Smoke from the Camp Fire had brought unhealthful air quality to the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley for more than a week.

A second storm was moving into Northern California tonight, with rain in the forecast Friday.

Tamra Gray’s Facebook friends have started posting photos of their newly decorated Christmas trees. When she stumbles upon this display of normalcy, she can barely hold it together.

“It’s hard to think about the holidays right now,” she said as she sat at a table in the Chico Mall food court, where she and her husband were discussing their options with a home insurance company representative. “I don’t have a home to put a tree in right now.”

Gray and her husband, Scott, lived in their Paradise home on Oak Way for 20 years. What she will miss the most are the pine trees in her backyard and the cool shade they provided, a simple pleasure she could count on even when the mercury hit 100.

At 10 a.m. on the day of the fire, Gray’s 19-year-old son, Dylan, came running down the street. He had gotten stuck in gridlock traffic on Wagstaff Road, and seeing the plumes of black smoke ahead of him, he ditched his car in the closest parking lot and darted home, the only one he’s ever known. “There’s a fire, we gotta get out,” he shouted. They had not received an evacuation alert.

Gray did not think the house would burn. They lived a block from a fire station. Before leaving, she touched a redwood keepsake box that contained her children’s first teeth. “If I take this to a shelter, it could get stolen,” she thought. She left it.

The family also left three dogs behind, taking several others with them in separate cars. Gray’s thinking was this: if there was looting, the big dogs would protect the home. Gray found the animals’ remains when she returned to Paradise last week. She is consumed by guilt.

Gray and her family -- four adults and two kids -- are staying in an RV as they search for a rental. Her 29-year-old daughter, Shannon, also lost her home in Magalia.

“I feel lost. I just feel so homesick and I can’t seem to get past that yet,” Gray said, tearing up. “It’s hard for me to think about where I want to be in the future.”

Just as she was being asked what she was grateful for on the eve of Thanksgiving, Gray’s teenage daughter, Victoria, bounded up to her in the food court with several shopping bags in her hand.

“I got you shoes,” Victoria said, pulling out a pair of gray Champion slip-ons. “They were on sale.”

Gray tugged off one of the brown Ugg boots she got at a shelter. She tried on a sneaker.

“I’m grateful that my family made it out alive,” Gray said, returning to the question. “It’s easy to answer that when it’s staring me right in the face. It’s when I’m alone that I go into a dark place.”