Rain is forecast this week in the burn zones of Paradise in Northern California and the Malibu/Ventura County area in Southern California.

This has prompted concern about mudflows.

Soil in a burned area can be repellent to water, creating a flood-like flow on the ground that picks up rock and debris.

A broken skull and a few other bone fragments found in the scorched hills of Latigo Canyon on Saturday came from a human who died well before the Woolsey fire, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said Wednesday.

A landowner spotted what appeared to be human bones Thursday as he was checking fire damage to his property off Latigo Canyon Road, about a mile north of Ocean View Road, near mile marker 6.92, Sgt. Marcelo Quintero said.

The property didn’t notify authorities about the bones until Saturday.

Firefighters are hoping to have full containment of the Woolsey fire sometime today.

The fire, which killed three people, destroyed more than 1,600 structures and burned over 96,000 acres from Oak Park to Malibu, was 98% contained as of Tuesday night.

People continued to return to their homes, but officials warned of possible rain in the burn areas later this week.

A pair of incoming storms are threatening to hamper recovery efforts in Paradise, Calif.

In a worst-case scenario, the downpour could flood the ruins and wash away human remains, leaving authorities unable to find and identify every victim of California’s deadliest wildfire on record.

Authorities fear bones could sink underwater, making them harder to spot and drowning any scent that cadaver dogs rely on to find them.

Paradise narrowed its main road through town as well as two other streets in recent years, hoping to slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety.

The changes came despite warnings that a major fire would cause crippling gridlock during evacuations, a scenario that became grim reality when California’s worst wildfire swept into Paradise this month.

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After a fast-moving fire swept into town a decade ago, burning more than 200 homes and trapping thousands of fleeing residents on gridlocked mountain roads, a grand jury called on officials to improve evacuation routes.

The number of people unaccounted for in the destructive Camp fire rose to 870 on Tuesday after investigators were able to work through a backlog of voicemails, authorities said.

The surge comes as the death toll increased to 81, with two bodies recovered inside structures in the Butte County town of Paradise. Of the 81, authorities said they had tentatively identified 56 people. 

By Tuesday evening, investigators had also been able to locate nearly 200 people reported missing, raising the number of people checked off the missing-persons list to 1,864. 

The death toll from California’s worst fire rose to 81 on Tuesday as the search continued for the missing.

The fire has burned more than 12,000 structures, destroying most of the town of Paradise and other nearby communities. 

As of Monday night, there were nearly 700 people still missing.

Inside the cafeteria of Bidwell Junior High School, 63-year-old Deborah Laughlin sipped on coffee and scooped up some apple pie.

A lot was on her mind.

Laughlin said she lost her home in Paradise. She had been living at Evergreen Mobile Home Park. Since the evacuations, she has been at the middle school, where the Red Cross operates a shelter. She said she registered with FEMA and hopes she’ll be able to get housing.

Four members of the Oakland Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force removed a charred mattress spring and began combing through a mixture of ash, dirt, shredded wood and pieces of roofing tiles.

Using their gloves to move around the blackened dirt, they looked for human remains.

“This is hard,” one of the recovery workers said. “But we’re trying. Let everyone know we’re trying.”