Wildfire creeps through the forest, down the south side of Dry Creek Canyon, at the Partrick Fire on October 12, 2017 west of Napa, California. Thousands of homes have burned, at least 31 people confirmed killed with hundreds still missing as California wildfires continue to spread out of control. AFP
SANTA ROSA鈥擝ody recovery teams with cadaver dogs were searching on Thursday for victims of California鈥檚 wildfires as reinforcements arrived to help exhausted firefighters battle some of the worst infernos the state has ever seen.
The death toll rose to 31 from the wildfires, which began on Sunday and have left thousands of people homeless. Authorities said they expect it to rise further.
Sheriff Rob Giordano of hard-hit Sonoma County said his department had received 1,000 reports of missing persons, but about 600 of them have been found safe so far.
鈥淭hose are big numbers,鈥� he said, but 鈥渟ometimes we get duplicates of people.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e moving into a recovery phase,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have cadaver dogs up here that can basically scent bodies and help us find people.鈥�
Giordano said it was 鈥済oing to be a slow process鈥� as fires continued to burn and that identifying victims would be difficult.
Ash and bones
鈥淲e have found bodies that were completely intact and we have found bodies that were nothing more than ash and bones,鈥� he said.
Asked if he expected the death toll to rise, Giordano replied: 鈥淚鈥檇 be unrealistic if I didn鈥檛.鈥�
As recovery teams fanned out searching for fire victims, evacuation orders were issued for towns in wine-producing Napa and Sonoma counties, where hundreds of people have already lost their homes to the fast-moving infernos.
Residents of Calistoga, a resort town of some 5,000 people in Napa, and Geyserville, a town of around 800 people in Sonoma, were told to leave and seek shelter elsewhere.
Entire neighborhoods in Santa Rosa have been reduced to ashes, and evacuation orders were issued for additional parts of the devastated city of 175,000 people in Sonoma County.
A state emergency management official said authorities were looking into bringing in firefighters from as far away as Australia.
David Shew, a veteran firefighter with Cal Fire, said the wildfires were like nothing he鈥檚 seen before.
鈥淚鈥檝e been with Cal Fire for 30 years and I鈥檝e seen big fires,鈥� he told AFP. 鈥淏ut this is extraordinary, having that many and that large and going so fast.鈥�
鈥楲ike a thief came in鈥�
US President Donald Trump had declared a major disaster in California, freeing up federal funding and resources to help fight the fires, and Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in eight counties.
Michael Desmond, 63, was among hundreds of residents of Santa Rosa鈥檚 Coffey Park neighborhood who lost their homes.
鈥淚 feel violated, like a thief came in,鈥� said Desmond, who sobbed as he surveyed the rubble of the house where he grew up.
Forest fires are common in the western United States during the summer but this year鈥檚 blazes in California were among the deadliest ever.
The Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles County in 1933 killed at least 29 people, and 25 people died in the 1991 Oakland Hills fire. 鈥擜FP