Click here if you are having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.

CHICO — As people driven homeless by the Camp Fire were facing the specter of having to move out of a refugee encampment this weekend, authorities announced Friday evening that the number of people who perished in the state’s deadliest fire has now reached 71 and those still unaccounted for have surpassed 1,000.

That’s more than double the number from the second-deadliest wildfire in California history — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles — and could soon be triple the 25 people who died in the Oakland Hills firestorm in 1991.

Of the eight additional victims revealed Friday, seven were found in Paradise inside structures and one in Magalia, also inside a structure. Authorities also have released the names of two more fire victims — bringing the total number of officially identified victims to five — Paula Dodge, 70, and Randall Dodge, 68, both Paradise residents.

Although not reported by authorities, a Sacramento man told this news organization that he was notified Friday that the likely remains of his mother, Dorothy Lee Herrera, 90, and her husband of more than three decades, Louis Herrera, 86, were found in their home on Clear View Drive in Paradise.

Arthur Lee said he last heard from his mother the morning of the fire, leaving a voice message saying there was a fire and she needed to evacuate. His family searched every shelter and hospital for days.

“I was wondering if someone else would have picked them up,” Lee said from his Sacramento home Friday evening. “I was kind of hoping, but I’m assuming the fire moved so fast, they didn’t get a chance to get out.”

He submitted a DNA sample in Sacramento on Friday afternoon to help confirm the identification.

The official number of unaccounted for people announced Friday was 1,011, an increase of 380 from Thursday, even after officials cleared 329 people from their missing-persons rolls. Sheriff Kory Honea said the list continues to be culled from calls, emails and other data mined from callers in the initial hours of the fire and may contain duplicate entries.

“It’s easy for them to lose contact with each other,” Honea said, referring to people scattered across the state reporting their friends and relatives missing. “That adds to the difficulty.”

Complete California wildfire coverage with latest updates and stories from the scene – Read the stories

Along the fire lines, the historically destructive blaze has burned 146,000 acres and destroyed 9,700 homes and 2,563 other structures, according to Cal Fire. On a hopeful note, half of the fire is now contained.

Meanwhile, this news organization’s review of firefighter radio transmissions indicates a possible “second start” of the Camp Fire — currently being investigated by Cal Fire — was caught on a firewatch camera near the Concow reservoir, about a half-hour after the first flames were reported about five miles northeast near Poe Dam and Pulga.

To date, 47,200 people remain evacuated, and 1,164 were staying in evacuation and emergency shelters, authorities said.

Meanwhile, a tent city that served as a refuge for some of the most impoverished people left homeless by the Camp Fire likely will disappear by the end of the weekend, its occupants pushed to move to evacuation shelters and other living spaces for their longer-term health and safety as colder weather sets in and rain looms.

“It’s best for these people to get into a shelter for the best care,” said Rob Busick, one of the volunteer organizers of the encampment that sprang up in and beside the parking lot of Walmart on Forest Avenue. “This was always meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Busick noted next week’s forecast of colder weather and then rain had the Walmart encampment’s organizers worried that potential flooding could endanger people staying in more than 100 tents in a field abutting the asphalt lot.

“With the cold, rain and air quality, it’s not safe for them anymore,” he said. “We want to help them comfortably transition into the next place.”

News of the impending draw-down of the tent city, which hosted as many as 500 people at its peak since the Nov. 8 inferno and grew to include a distribution center for donated clothing and a food truck, as well as for public health and relocation assistance, was met with dismay by many people still staying there.

A sign erected at the encampment notifying people it was to be closed provoked “a near riot” Thursday night, said organizer Guido Barbero. Tensions also were heightened by confusion about who decided the camp should close.

Friday, next to the retail giant’s parking lot, some 125 tents were scattered across a field of beaten-down autumn-gold grass. In a circle of six tents that its denizens dubbed “Wally Hood” in tribute to the property owner, about 10 refugees from the fire-ravaged hills created a supportive new community and they did not want to leave, said Tammy Mezera, 49, formerly of Magalia.

Mezera was sitting with five friends in collapsible chairs inside the circle of tents, a large plastic bin for a table, and a metal night-time cage for Nel, the friendly brindle pit bull, serving as a kitchen counter.

Get breaking news alerts on wildfire and other important stories – Sign up now

“Everybody’s been through a traumatic experience,” Mezera said. “We have a bond here, just like people in war, in the foxhole.”

News that she and her small band of evacuees and others in the camp will be uprooted “is creating more psychological hardship for people,” Mezera said. The camp’s dwellers were told that on Sunday the portable toilets would be removed and meals stopped.

“It’s too soon,” she said.

Deja German, staying with a friend in a large tent a stone’s throw from Wally Hood, criticized the effort to relocate evacuees. She said she didn’t know where they were supposed to go.

“Trying to find answers is pretty much impossible,” said German, 38, who got a ride out of Magalia the day the fire started.

A number of people staying in vehicles at the edge of the Walmart lot also were urged to leave, said Debi Crane, a retired florist evacuated with her two sisters, who turned a rented U-Haul truck into a parked living space.

Spending time at the camp with others traumatized by fire and loss was “uplifting,” said Crane, 62.

Many campers acknowledged the tent city was not entirely safe and reported seeing several fights and drug dealing, as well as homeless people not displaced by the fire who had started to move in for the free food and clothing.

Closure of the camp, organizer Busick said, was a collective decision by emergency officials, local government representatives and the handful of organizers — soccer friends in Chico — who started the camp. He lauded Walmart for its compassion and patience. “Walmart has been fantastic. They could have shut this down from day one,” he said.

How you can help victims of the Camp Fire in Butte County

Donated gas cards and other resources are being made available to help the campers get to official evacuation shelters and more stable living situations. Bidwell Jr. High School on North Avenue in Chico hosts a county shelter still accepting people, as others have filled.

Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said although the company was happy it could provide a refuge, “we understand that our parking lots are not a viable long-term housing solution and are working closely with the American Red Cross, the county and local organizations to best preserve the health and safety of those impacted by the Camp Fire.”

For Tina Duarte, her daughter and two granddaughters, formerly of Paradise, the camp provided a refuge from disease outbreaks such as the orovirus that hit a Chico church shelter. Her youngest granddaughter is only three weeks old, she said.

“I lost my house. I’m not going to lose my granddaughter,” said Duarte, 45. “We’re better off in a tent.”

But on Friday afternoon, they accepted a good Samaritan’s offer to borrow a 40-foot trailer, and they were packing up to go.

Staff writers Jason Green and Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.

Anyone seeking information about people missing in the wake of the Camp Fire or who wants to report someone missing or accounted for can view the latest list from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner and call one of the following three hotlines: 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544, 530-538-7671.

Information about evacuation shelters for people displaced by the Camp Fire can be found at the Butte County website at buttecounty.net.</s>CHICO — The Camp Fire continued to increase its morbid distance in the history books from previously lethal wildfires in the state, as the death toll rose to 71, and the number of people still considered missing surpassed 1,000 despite tireless efforts to remove hundreds of people from massive missing-persons rolls.

The number of people who perished in the fire already has more than doubled the number from the second-deadliest wildfire in California history — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles — and could soon triple the 25 people who died in the Oakland Hills firestorm in 1991.

Of the eight additional victims revealed Friday, seven were found in Paradise inside structures, while one was found inside a structure in Magalia. Authorities have also released the names of two more fire victims — bringing the total number of officially identified victims to five — Paula Dodge, 70, and Randall Dodge, 68, both Paradise residents.

Meanwhile, the official number of missing people announced Friday was 1,011, an increase of 380 from Thursday, even after officials cleared 329 people from their missing-persons rolls. Sheriff Kory Honea said the list of unaccounted individuals continues to be culled from calls, emails and other data mined from callers in the opening hours of the fire, and may contain duplicate entries as they prioritize public notification over infallibility.

“It’s easy for them to lose contact with each other,” Honea said, referring to people scattered across the state reporting their friends and relatives missing. “That adds to the difficulty.”

Along the fire lines, the historically destructive blaze has burned 146,000 acres and destroyed 9,700 homes and 2,563 other structures, according to Cal Fire. On a hopeful note, the containment of the fire reached 50 percent.

Meanwhile, this news organization’s review of firefighter radio transmissions indicates a possible “second start” of the Camp Fire — currently being investigated by Cal Fire — was caught on a firewatch camera near the Concow reservoir, about a half-hour after the first flames were reported about five miles northeast near Poe Dam and Pulga.

To date, 47,200 people remain evacuated, and 1,164 were staying in evacuation and emergency shelters, authorities said.

Related to that front, a tent city that served as a refuge for some of the most impoverished people left homeless by the Camp Fire will likely disappear by the end of the weekend, its occupants pushed to move to evacuation shelters and other living spaces for their longer-term health and safety as colder weather sets in and rain looms.

“It’s best for these people to get into a shelter for the best care,” said Rob Busick, one of the volunteer organizers of the encampment that sprang up in and beside the parking lot of Walmart on Forest Avenue. “This was always meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Busick noted next week’s forecast of colder weather and then rain had the Walmart encampment’s organizers worried that potential flooding could endanger people staying in more than 100 tents in a field abutting the asphalt lot.

“With the cold, rain, and air quality, it’s not safe for them anymore,” he said. “We want to help them comfortably transition into the next place.”

News of the impending draw-down of the tent city, which hosted as many as 500 people at its peak since the Nov. 8 inferno and grew to include a distribution center for donated clothing and a food truck, as well as for public health and relocation assistance, was met with dismay by many people still staying there.

A sign erected at the encampment notifying people it was to be closed provoked “a near riot” Thursday night, said organizer Guido Barbero. Tensions were also heightened by confusion about who decided the camp should close.

Friday, next to the retail giant’s parking lot, some 125 tents were scattered across a field of beaten-down autumn-gold grass. In a circle of six tents that its denizens dubbed “Wally Hood” in tribute to the property owner, about 10 refugees from the fire-ravaged hills created a supportive new community, and they did not want to leave, said Tammy Mezera, 49, formerly of Magalia.

Mezera was sitting with five friends in collapsible chairs inside the circle of tents, a large plastic bin for a table, and a metal night-time cage for Nel, the friendly brindle pit bull, serving as a kitchen counter.

“Everybody’s been through a traumatic experience,” Mezera said. “We have a bond here, just like people in war, in the foxhole.”

News that she and her small band of evacuees and others in the camp will be uprooted “is creating more psychological hardship for people,” Mezera said. The camp’s dwellers were told that on Sunday the portable toilets would be removed and meals stopped.

“It’s too soon,” she said.

Deja German, staying with a friend in a large tent a stone’s throw from Wally Hood, criticized the effort to turf evacuees. She said she didn’t know where they were supposed to go.

“Trying to find answers is pretty much impossible,” said German, 38, who got a ride out of Magalia the day the fire started.

A number of people staying in vehicles at the edge of the Walmart lot were also urged to leave, said Debi Crane, a retired florist evacuated with her two sisters, who turned a rented U-Haul truck into a parked living space.

Spending time at the camp with others traumatized by fire and loss was “uplifting,” said Crane, 62.

Many campers acknowledged the tent city was not entirely safe and reported seeing several fights and drug dealing, as well as homeless people not displaced by the fire who had starting to move in for the free food and clothing.

Closure of the camp, organizer Busick said, was a collective decision by emergency officials, local government representatives, and the handful of organizers — soccer friends in Chico — who started the camp. He lauded Walmart for its compassion and patience. “Walmart has been fantastic. They could have shut this down from day one,” he said.

Donated gas cards and other resources are being made available to help the campers get to official evacuation shelters and more stable living situations. Bidwell Jr. High School on North Avenue in Chico hosts a county shelter still accepting people, as others have filled.

Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said although the company was happy it could provide a refuge, “we understand that our parking lots are not a viable long-term housing solution and are working closely with the American Red Cross, the county and local organizations to best preserve the health and safety of those impacted by the Camp Fire.”

For Tina Duarte, her daughter and two granddaughters, formerly of Paradise, the camp provided a refuge from disease outbreaks such as the orovirus that hit a Chico church shelter. Her youngest granddaughter is only three weeks old, she said.

“I lost my house. I’m not going to lose my granddaughter,” said Duarte, 45. “We’re better off in a tent.”

But on Friday afternoon, they accepted a good Samaritan’s offer to borrow a 40-foot trailer, and they were packing up to go.

Anyone seeking information about people missing in the wake of the Camp Fire, or want to report someone missing or accounted for, can view the latest list from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner and call one of the following three hotlines: 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544, 530-538-7671.

Information about evacuation shelters for people displaced by the Camp Fire can be found at the Butte County website at buttecounty.net.</s>The death toll in Northern California’s Camp fire rose once again on Thursday to 63 as rescue workers continue to search through the devastation left by the state’s deadliest blaze in history, authorities said.

A further 631 people remained unaccounted for, a vast increase from just a day prior when officials said 130 people were missing. The fire has scorched some 141,000 acres and is 40 percent contained.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told those gathered at a news briefing that the number of missing persons reflected ongoing work by emergency response personnel sifting through reports, but said many of the unaccounted for may simply be displaced in shelters throughout the region. He urged people to look at the list of those unaccounted for and to let authorities know if they are safe.

“The reason that that number went up is because after they went up, [emergency officials] didn’t stop working, they continued to work into the night,” Honea said. “I’m fine with that update, because I would rather get that information out than wait too much longer to do that.”

He continued: “I want you to understand that there are a lot of people displaced and there are a lot of people who don’t know we’re looking for them.”

Honea said that while recovery efforts remain difficult, increased resources have helped “bring more order to the chaos that we’re dealing with.”

Brent Newman, chief of the California Highway Patrol’s Valley Division, said officials were “more committed than we’ve ever been,” adding that it had been a tough week, but authorities were set on providing the community “outstanding support” throughout the recovery efforts.

More than 11,800 structures have been destroyed by the fire, including 9,700 homes, and officials cautioned that winds and dry conditions were expected to continue. Aviva Braun, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Wednesday that the agency expected some rain to arrive by the end of next week.

President Donald Trump is expected to visit the areas affected by the fire, although it’s unclear where exactly he’s heading. The president has been criticized for initially responding to the fire by blaming the conflagrations on “poor” forest management and threatening to cut off federal payments.

In Southern California, which has also been ablaze this month, Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said Thursday night that the Woolsey fire had grown to more than 98,000 acres, but was 62 percent contained.</s>Click here if you are having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.

CHICO — As people driven homeless by the Camp Fire were facing the specter of having to move out of a refugee encampment this weekend, authorities announced Friday evening that the number of people who perished in the state’s deadliest fire has now reached 71 and those still unaccounted for have surpassed 1,000.

That’s more than double the number from the second-deadliest wildfire in California history — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles — and could soon be triple the 25 people who died in the Oakland Hills firestorm in 1991.

Of the eight additional victims revealed Friday, seven were found in Paradise inside structures and one in Magalia, also inside a structure. Authorities also have released the names of two more fire victims — bringing the total number of officially identified victims to five — Paula Dodge, 70, and Randall Dodge, 68, both Paradise residents.

Although not reported by authorities, a Sacramento man told this news organization that he was notified Friday that the likely remains of his mother, Dorothy Lee Herrera, 90, and her husband of more than three decades, Louis Herrera, 86, were found in their home on Clear View Drive in Paradise.

Arthur Lee said he last heard from his mother the morning of the fire, leaving a voice message saying there was a fire and she needed to evacuate. His family searched every shelter and hospital for days.

“I was wondering if someone else would have picked them up,” Lee said from his Sacramento home Friday evening. “I was kind of hoping, but I’m assuming the fire moved so fast, they didn’t get a chance to get out.”

He submitted a DNA sample in Sacramento on Friday afternoon to help confirm the identification.

The official number of unaccounted for people announced Friday was 1,011, an increase of 380 from Thursday, even after officials cleared 329 people from their missing-persons rolls. Sheriff Kory Honea said the list continues to be culled from calls, emails and other data mined from callers in the initial hours of the fire and may contain duplicate entries.

“It’s easy for them to lose contact with each other,” Honea said, referring to people scattered across the state reporting their friends and relatives missing. “That adds to the difficulty.”

Complete California wildfire coverage with latest updates and stories from the scene – Read the stories

Along the fire lines, the historically destructive blaze has burned 146,000 acres and destroyed 9,700 homes and 2,563 other structures, according to Cal Fire. On a hopeful note, half of the fire is now contained.

Meanwhile, this news organization’s review of firefighter radio transmissions indicates a possible “second start” of the Camp Fire — currently being investigated by Cal Fire — was caught on a firewatch camera near the Concow reservoir, about a half-hour after the first flames were reported about five miles northeast near Poe Dam and Pulga.

To date, 47,200 people remain evacuated, and 1,164 were staying in evacuation and emergency shelters, authorities said.

Meanwhile, a tent city that served as a refuge for some of the most impoverished people left homeless by the Camp Fire likely will disappear by the end of the weekend, its occupants pushed to move to evacuation shelters and other living spaces for their longer-term health and safety as colder weather sets in and rain looms.

“It’s best for these people to get into a shelter for the best care,” said Rob Busick, one of the volunteer organizers of the encampment that sprang up in and beside the parking lot of Walmart on Forest Avenue. “This was always meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Busick noted next week’s forecast of colder weather and then rain had the Walmart encampment’s organizers worried that potential flooding could endanger people staying in more than 100 tents in a field abutting the asphalt lot.

“With the cold, rain and air quality, it’s not safe for them anymore,” he said. “We want to help them comfortably transition into the next place.”

News of the impending draw-down of the tent city, which hosted as many as 500 people at its peak since the Nov. 8 inferno and grew to include a distribution center for donated clothing and a food truck, as well as for public health and relocation assistance, was met with dismay by many people still staying there.

A sign erected at the encampment notifying people it was to be closed provoked “a near riot” Thursday night, said organizer Guido Barbero. Tensions also were heightened by confusion about who decided the camp should close.

Friday, next to the retail giant’s parking lot, some 125 tents were scattered across a field of beaten-down autumn-gold grass. In a circle of six tents that its denizens dubbed “Wally Hood” in tribute to the property owner, about 10 refugees from the fire-ravaged hills created a supportive new community and they did not want to leave, said Tammy Mezera, 49, formerly of Magalia.

Mezera was sitting with five friends in collapsible chairs inside the circle of tents, a large plastic bin for a table, and a metal night-time cage for Nel, the friendly brindle pit bull, serving as a kitchen counter.

Get breaking news alerts on wildfire and other important stories – Sign up now

“Everybody’s been through a traumatic experience,” Mezera said. “We have a bond here, just like people in war, in the foxhole.”

News that she and her small band of evacuees and others in the camp will be uprooted “is creating more psychological hardship for people,” Mezera said. The camp’s dwellers were told that on Sunday the portable toilets would be removed and meals stopped.

“It’s too soon,” she said.

Deja German, staying with a friend in a large tent a stone’s throw from Wally Hood, criticized the effort to relocate evacuees. She said she didn’t know where they were supposed to go.

“Trying to find answers is pretty much impossible,” said German, 38, who got a ride out of Magalia the day the fire started.

A number of people staying in vehicles at the edge of the Walmart lot also were urged to leave, said Debi Crane, a retired florist evacuated with her two sisters, who turned a rented U-Haul truck into a parked living space.

Spending time at the camp with others traumatized by fire and loss was “uplifting,” said Crane, 62.

Many campers acknowledged the tent city was not entirely safe and reported seeing several fights and drug dealing, as well as homeless people not displaced by the fire who had started to move in for the free food and clothing.

Closure of the camp, organizer Busick said, was a collective decision by emergency officials, local government representatives and the handful of organizers — soccer friends in Chico — who started the camp. He lauded Walmart for its compassion and patience. “Walmart has been fantastic. They could have shut this down from day one,” he said.

How you can help victims of the Camp Fire in Butte County

Donated gas cards and other resources are being made available to help the campers get to official evacuation shelters and more stable living situations. Bidwell Jr. High School on North Avenue in Chico hosts a county shelter still accepting people, as others have filled.

Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said although the company was happy it could provide a refuge, “we understand that our parking lots are not a viable long-term housing solution and are working closely with the American Red Cross, the county and local organizations to best preserve the health and safety of those impacted by the Camp Fire.”

For Tina Duarte, her daughter and two granddaughters, formerly of Paradise, the camp provided a refuge from disease outbreaks such as the orovirus that hit a Chico church shelter. Her youngest granddaughter is only three weeks old, she said.

“I lost my house. I’m not going to lose my granddaughter,” said Duarte, 45. “We’re better off in a tent.”

But on Friday afternoon, they accepted a good Samaritan’s offer to borrow a 40-foot trailer, and they were packing up to go.

Staff writers Jason Green and Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.

Anyone seeking information about people missing in the wake of the Camp Fire or who wants to report someone missing or accounted for can view the latest list from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner and call one of the following three hotlines: 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544, 530-538-7671.

Information about evacuation shelters for people displaced by the Camp Fire can be found at the Butte County website at buttecounty.net.</s>Click here if you are having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.

CHICO — As people driven homeless by the Camp Fire were facing the specter of having to move out of a refugee encampment this weekend, authorities announced Friday evening that the number of people who perished in the state’s deadliest fire has now reached 71 and those still unaccounted for have surpassed 1,000.

That’s more than double the number from the second-deadliest wildfire in California history — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles — and could soon be triple the 25 people who died in the Oakland Hills firestorm in 1991.

Of the eight additional victims revealed Friday, seven were found in Paradise inside structures and one in Magalia, also inside a structure. Authorities also have released the names of two more fire victims — bringing the total number of officially identified victims to five — Paula Dodge, 70, and Randall Dodge, 68, both Paradise residents.

Although not reported by authorities, a Sacramento man told this news organization that he was notified Friday that the likely remains of his mother, Dorothy Lee Herrera, 90, and her husband of more than three decades, Louis Herrera, 86, were found in their home on Clear View Drive in Paradise.

Arthur Lee said he last heard from his mother the morning of the fire, leaving a voice message saying there was a fire and she needed to evacuate. His family searched every shelter and hospital for days.

“I was wondering if someone else would have picked them up,” Lee said from his Sacramento home Friday evening. “I was kind of hoping, but I’m assuming the fire moved so fast, they didn’t get a chance to get out.”

He submitted a DNA sample in Sacramento on Friday afternoon to help confirm the identification.

The official number of unaccounted for people announced Friday was 1,011, an increase of 380 from Thursday, even after officials cleared 329 people from their missing-persons rolls. Sheriff Kory Honea said the list continues to be culled from calls, emails and other data mined from callers in the initial hours of the fire and may contain duplicate entries.

“It’s easy for them to lose contact with each other,” Honea said, referring to people scattered across the state reporting their friends and relatives missing. “That adds to the difficulty.”

Complete California wildfire coverage with latest updates and stories from the scene – Read the stories

Along the fire lines, the historically destructive blaze has burned 146,000 acres and destroyed 9,700 homes and 2,563 other structures, according to Cal Fire. On a hopeful note, half of the fire is now contained.

Meanwhile, this news organization’s review of firefighter radio transmissions indicates a possible “second start” of the Camp Fire — currently being investigated by Cal Fire — was caught on a firewatch camera near the Concow reservoir, about a half-hour after the first flames were reported about five miles northeast near Poe Dam and Pulga.

To date, 47,200 people remain evacuated, and 1,164 were staying in evacuation and emergency shelters, authorities said.

Meanwhile, a tent city that served as a refuge for some of the most impoverished people left homeless by the Camp Fire likely will disappear by the end of the weekend, its occupants pushed to move to evacuation shelters and other living spaces for their longer-term health and safety as colder weather sets in and rain looms.

“It’s best for these people to get into a shelter for the best care,” said Rob Busick, one of the volunteer organizers of the encampment that sprang up in and beside the parking lot of Walmart on Forest Avenue. “This was always meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Busick noted next week’s forecast of colder weather and then rain had the Walmart encampment’s organizers worried that potential flooding could endanger people staying in more than 100 tents in a field abutting the asphalt lot.

“With the cold, rain and air quality, it’s not safe for them anymore,” he said. “We want to help them comfortably transition into the next place.”

News of the impending draw-down of the tent city, which hosted as many as 500 people at its peak since the Nov. 8 inferno and grew to include a distribution center for donated clothing and a food truck, as well as for public health and relocation assistance, was met with dismay by many people still staying there.

A sign erected at the encampment notifying people it was to be closed provoked “a near riot” Thursday night, said organizer Guido Barbero. Tensions also were heightened by confusion about who decided the camp should close.

Friday, next to the retail giant’s parking lot, some 125 tents were scattered across a field of beaten-down autumn-gold grass. In a circle of six tents that its denizens dubbed “Wally Hood” in tribute to the property owner, about 10 refugees from the fire-ravaged hills created a supportive new community and they did not want to leave, said Tammy Mezera, 49, formerly of Magalia.

Mezera was sitting with five friends in collapsible chairs inside the circle of tents, a large plastic bin for a table, and a metal night-time cage for Nel, the friendly brindle pit bull, serving as a kitchen counter.

Get breaking news alerts on wildfire and other important stories – Sign up now

“Everybody’s been through a traumatic experience,” Mezera said. “We have a bond here, just like people in war, in the foxhole.”

News that she and her small band of evacuees and others in the camp will be uprooted “is creating more psychological hardship for people,” Mezera said. The camp’s dwellers were told that on Sunday the portable toilets would be removed and meals stopped.

“It’s too soon,” she said.

Deja German, staying with a friend in a large tent a stone’s throw from Wally Hood, criticized the effort to relocate evacuees. She said she didn’t know where they were supposed to go.

“Trying to find answers is pretty much impossible,” said German, 38, who got a ride out of Magalia the day the fire started.

A number of people staying in vehicles at the edge of the Walmart lot also were urged to leave, said Debi Crane, a retired florist evacuated with her two sisters, who turned a rented U-Haul truck into a parked living space.

Spending time at the camp with others traumatized by fire and loss was “uplifting,” said Crane, 62.

Many campers acknowledged the tent city was not entirely safe and reported seeing several fights and drug dealing, as well as homeless people not displaced by the fire who had started to move in for the free food and clothing.

Closure of the camp, organizer Busick said, was a collective decision by emergency officials, local government representatives and the handful of organizers — soccer friends in Chico — who started the camp. He lauded Walmart for its compassion and patience. “Walmart has been fantastic. They could have shut this down from day one,” he said.

How you can help victims of the Camp Fire in Butte County

Donated gas cards and other resources are being made available to help the campers get to official evacuation shelters and more stable living situations. Bidwell Jr. High School on North Avenue in Chico hosts a county shelter still accepting people, as others have filled.

Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said although the company was happy it could provide a refuge, “we understand that our parking lots are not a viable long-term housing solution and are working closely with the American Red Cross, the county and local organizations to best preserve the health and safety of those impacted by the Camp Fire.”

For Tina Duarte, her daughter and two granddaughters, formerly of Paradise, the camp provided a refuge from disease outbreaks such as the norovirus that hit a Chico church shelter. Her youngest granddaughter is only three weeks old, she said.

“I lost my house. I’m not going to lose my granddaughter,” said Duarte, 45. “We’re better off in a tent.”

But on Friday afternoon, they accepted a good Samaritan’s offer to borrow a 40-foot trailer, and they were packing up to go.

Staff writers Jason Green and Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.

Anyone seeking information about people missing in the wake of the Camp Fire or who wants to report someone missing or accounted for can view the latest list from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner and call one of the following three hotlines: 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544, 530-538-7671.

Information about evacuation shelters for people displaced by the Camp Fire can be found at the Butte County website at buttecounty.net.</s>Click here if you are having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.

CHICO — As people driven homeless by the Camp Fire were facing the specter of having to move out of a refugee encampment this weekend, authorities announced Friday evening that the number of people who perished in the state’s deadliest fire has now reached 71 and those still unaccounted for have surpassed 1,000.

That’s more than double the number from the second-deadliest wildfire in California history — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles — and could soon be triple the 25 people who died in the Oakland Hills firestorm in 1991.

Of the eight additional victims revealed Friday, seven were found in Paradise inside structures and one in Magalia, also inside a structure. Authorities also have released the names of two more fire victims — bringing the total number of officially identified victims to five — Paula Dodge, 70, and Randall Dodge, 68, both Paradise residents.

Although not reported by authorities, a Sacramento man told this news organization that he was notified Friday that the likely remains of his mother, Dorothy Lee Herrera, 90, and her husband of more than three decades, Louis Herrera, 86, were found in their home on Clear View Drive in Paradise.

Arthur Lee said he last heard from his mother the morning of the fire, leaving a voice message saying there was a fire and she needed to evacuate. His family searched every shelter and hospital for days.

“I was wondering if someone else would have picked them up,” Lee said from his Sacramento home Friday evening. “I was kind of hoping, but I’m assuming the fire moved so fast, they didn’t get a chance to get out.”

He submitted a DNA sample in Sacramento on Friday afternoon to help confirm the identification.

The official number of unaccounted for people announced Friday was 1,011, an increase of 380 from Thursday, even after officials cleared 329 people from their missing-persons rolls. Sheriff Kory Honea said the list continues to be culled from calls, emails and other data mined from callers in the initial hours of the fire and may contain duplicate entries.

“It’s easy for them to lose contact with each other,” Honea said, referring to people scattered across the state reporting their friends and relatives missing. “That adds to the difficulty.”

Complete California wildfire coverage with latest updates and stories from the scene – Read the stories

Along the fire lines, the historically destructive blaze has burned 146,000 acres and destroyed 9,700 homes and 2,563 other structures, according to Cal Fire. On a hopeful note, half of the fire is now contained.

Meanwhile, this news organization’s review of firefighter radio transmissions indicates a possible “second start” of the Camp Fire — currently being investigated by Cal Fire — was caught on a firewatch camera near the Concow reservoir, about a half-hour after the first flames were reported about five miles northeast near Poe Dam and Pulga.

To date, 47,200 people remain evacuated, and 1,164 were staying in evacuation and emergency shelters, authorities said.

Meanwhile, a tent city that served as a refuge for some of the most impoverished people left homeless by the Camp Fire likely will disappear by the end of the weekend, its occupants pushed to move to evacuation shelters and other living spaces for their longer-term health and safety as colder weather sets in and rain looms.

“It’s best for these people to get into a shelter for the best care,” said Rob Busick, one of the volunteer organizers of the encampment that sprang up in and beside the parking lot of Walmart on Forest Avenue. “This was always meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Busick noted next week’s forecast of colder weather and then rain had the Walmart encampment’s organizers worried that potential flooding could endanger people staying in more than 100 tents in a field abutting the asphalt lot.

“With the cold, rain and air quality, it’s not safe for them anymore,” he said. “We want to help them comfortably transition into the next place.”

News of the impending draw-down of the tent city, which hosted as many as 500 people at its peak since the Nov. 8 inferno and grew to include a distribution center for donated clothing and a food truck, as well as for public health and relocation assistance, was met with dismay by many people still staying there.

A sign erected at the encampment notifying people it was to be closed provoked “a near riot” Thursday night, said organizer Guido Barbero. Tensions also were heightened by confusion about who decided the camp should close.

Friday, next to the retail giant’s parking lot, some 125 tents were scattered across a field of beaten-down autumn-gold grass. In a circle of six tents that its denizens dubbed “Wally Hood” in tribute to the property owner, about 10 refugees from the fire-ravaged hills created a supportive new community and they did not want to leave, said Tammy Mezera, 49, formerly of Magalia.

Mezera was sitting with five friends in collapsible chairs inside the circle of tents, a large plastic bin for a table, and a metal night-time cage for Nel, the friendly brindle pit bull, serving as a kitchen counter.

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“Everybody’s been through a traumatic experience,” Mezera said. “We have a bond here, just like people in war, in the foxhole.”

News that she and her small band of evacuees and others in the camp will be uprooted “is creating more psychological hardship for people,” Mezera said. The camp’s dwellers were told that on Sunday the portable toilets would be removed and meals stopped.

“It’s too soon,” she said.

Deja German, staying with a friend in a large tent a stone’s throw from Wally Hood, criticized the effort to relocate evacuees. She said she didn’t know where they were supposed to go.

“Trying to find answers is pretty much impossible,” said German, 38, who got a ride out of Magalia the day the fire started.

A number of people staying in vehicles at the edge of the Walmart lot also were urged to leave, said Debi Crane, a retired florist evacuated with her two sisters, who turned a rented U-Haul truck into a parked living space.

Spending time at the camp with others traumatized by fire and loss was “uplifting,” said Crane, 62.

Many campers acknowledged the tent city was not entirely safe and reported seeing several fights and drug dealing, as well as homeless people not displaced by the fire who had started to move in for the free food and clothing.

Closure of the camp, organizer Busick said, was a collective decision by emergency officials, local government representatives and the handful of organizers — soccer friends in Chico — who started the camp. He lauded Walmart for its compassion and patience. “Walmart has been fantastic. They could have shut this down from day one,” he said.

How you can help victims of the Camp Fire in Butte County

Donated gas cards and other resources are being made available to help the campers get to official evacuation shelters and more stable living situations. Bidwell Jr. High School on North Avenue in Chico hosts a county shelter still accepting people, as others have filled.

Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said although the company was happy it could provide a refuge, “we understand that our parking lots are not a viable long-term housing solution and are working closely with the American Red Cross, the county and local organizations to best preserve the health and safety of those impacted by the Camp Fire.”

For Tina Duarte, her daughter and two granddaughters, formerly of Paradise, the camp provided a refuge from disease outbreaks such as the orovirus that hit a Chico church shelter. Her youngest granddaughter is only three weeks old, she said.

“I lost my house. I’m not going to lose my granddaughter,” said Duarte, 45. “We’re better off in a tent.”

But on Friday afternoon, they accepted a good Samaritan’s offer to borrow a 40-foot trailer, and they were packing up to go.

Staff writers Jason Green and Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.

Anyone seeking information about people missing in the wake of the Camp Fire or who wants to report someone missing or accounted for can view the latest list from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner and call one of the following three hotlines: 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544, 530-538-7671.

Information about evacuation shelters for people displaced by the Camp Fire can be found at the Butte County website at buttecounty.net.</s>Click here if you are having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.

CHICO — As people driven homeless by the Camp Fire were facing the specter of having to move out of a refugee encampment this weekend, authorities announced Friday evening that the number of people who perished in the state’s deadliest fire has now reached 71 and those still unaccounted for have surpassed 1,000.

That’s more than double the number from the second-deadliest wildfire in California history — the 1933 Griffith Park fire in Los Angeles — and could soon be triple the 25 people who died in the Oakland Hills firestorm in 1991.

Of the eight additional victims revealed Friday, seven were found in Paradise inside structures and one in Magalia, also inside a structure. Authorities also have released the names of two more fire victims — bringing the total number of officially identified victims to five — Paula Dodge, 70, and Randall Dodge, 68, both Paradise residents.

Although not reported by authorities, a Sacramento man told this news organization that he was notified Friday that the likely remains of his mother, Dorothy Lee Herrera, 90, and her husband of more than three decades, Louis Herrera, 86, were found in their home on Clear View Drive in Paradise.

Arthur Lee said he last heard from his mother the morning of the fire, leaving a voice message saying there was a fire and she needed to evacuate. His family searched every shelter and hospital for days.

“I was wondering if someone else would have picked them up,” Lee said from his Sacramento home Friday evening. “I was kind of hoping, but I’m assuming the fire moved so fast, they didn’t get a chance to get out.”

He submitted a DNA sample in Sacramento on Friday afternoon to help confirm the identification.

The official number of unaccounted for people announced Friday was 1,011, an increase of 380 from Thursday, even after officials cleared 329 people from their missing-persons rolls. Sheriff Kory Honea said the list continues to be culled from calls, emails and other data mined from callers in the initial hours of the fire and may contain duplicate entries.

“It’s easy for them to lose contact with each other,” Honea said, referring to people scattered across the state reporting their friends and relatives missing. “That adds to the difficulty.”

Complete California wildfire coverage with latest updates and stories from the scene – Read the stories

Along the fire lines, the historically destructive blaze has burned 146,000 acres and destroyed 9,700 homes and 2,563 other structures, according to Cal Fire. On a hopeful note, half of the fire is now contained.

Meanwhile, this news organization’s review of firefighter radio transmissions indicates a possible “second start” of the Camp Fire — currently being investigated by Cal Fire — was caught on a firewatch camera near the Concow reservoir, about a half-hour after the first flames were reported about five miles northeast near Poe Dam and Pulga.

To date, 47,200 people remain evacuated, and 1,164 were staying in evacuation and emergency shelters, authorities said.

Meanwhile, a tent city that served as a refuge for some of the most impoverished people left homeless by the Camp Fire likely will disappear by the end of the weekend, its occupants pushed to move to evacuation shelters and other living spaces for their longer-term health and safety as colder weather sets in and rain looms.

“It’s best for these people to get into a shelter for the best care,” said Rob Busick, one of the volunteer organizers of the encampment that sprang up in and beside the parking lot of Walmart on Forest Avenue. “This was always meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Busick noted next week’s forecast of colder weather and then rain had the Walmart encampment’s organizers worried that potential flooding could endanger people staying in more than 100 tents in a field abutting the asphalt lot.

“With the cold, rain and air quality, it’s not safe for them anymore,” he said. “We want to help them comfortably transition into the next place.”

News of the impending draw-down of the tent city, which hosted as many as 500 people at its peak since the Nov. 8 inferno and grew to include a distribution center for donated clothing and a food truck, as well as for public health and relocation assistance, was met with dismay by many people still staying there.

A sign erected at the encampment notifying people it was to be closed provoked “a near riot” Thursday night, said organizer Guido Barbero. Tensions also were heightened by confusion about who decided the camp should close.

Friday, next to the retail giant’s parking lot, some 125 tents were scattered across a field of beaten-down autumn-gold grass. In a circle of six tents that its denizens dubbed “Wally Hood” in tribute to the property owner, about 10 refugees from the fire-ravaged hills created a supportive new community and they did not want to leave, said Tammy Mezera, 49, formerly of Magalia.

Mezera was sitting with five friends in collapsible chairs inside the circle of tents, a large plastic bin for a table, and a metal night-time cage for Nel, the friendly brindle pit bull, serving as a kitchen counter.

Get breaking news alerts on wildfire and other important stories – Sign up now

“Everybody’s been through a traumatic experience,” Mezera said. “We have a bond here, just like people in war, in the foxhole.”

News that she and her small band of evacuees and others in the camp will be uprooted “is creating more psychological hardship for people,” Mezera said. The camp’s dwellers were told that on Sunday the portable toilets would be removed and meals stopped.

“It’s too soon,” she said.

Deja German, staying with a friend in a large tent a stone’s throw from Wally Hood, criticized the effort to relocate evacuees. She said she didn’t know where they were supposed to go.

“Trying to find answers is pretty much impossible,” said German, 38, who got a ride out of Magalia the day the fire started.

A number of people staying in vehicles at the edge of the Walmart lot also were urged to leave, said Debi Crane, a retired florist evacuated with her two sisters, who turned a rented U-Haul truck into a parked living space.

Spending time at the camp with others traumatized by fire and loss was “uplifting,” said Crane, 62.

Many campers acknowledged the tent city was not entirely safe and reported seeing several fights and drug dealing, as well as homeless people not displaced by the fire who had started to move in for the free food and clothing.

Closure of the camp, organizer Busick said, was a collective decision by emergency officials, local government representatives and the handful of organizers — soccer friends in Chico — who started the camp. He lauded Walmart for its compassion and patience. “Walmart has been fantastic. They could have shut this down from day one,” he said.

How you can help victims of the Camp Fire in Butte County

Donated gas cards and other resources are being made available to help the campers get to official evacuation shelters and more stable living situations. Bidwell Jr. High School on North Avenue in Chico hosts a county shelter still accepting people, as others have filled.

Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said although the company was happy it could provide a refuge, “we understand that our parking lots are not a viable long-term housing solution and are working closely with the American Red Cross, the county and local organizations to best preserve the health and safety of those impacted by the Camp Fire.”

For Tina Duarte, her daughter and two granddaughters, formerly of Paradise, the camp provided a refuge from disease outbreaks such as the orovirus that hit a Chico church shelter. Her youngest granddaughter is only three weeks old, she said.

“I lost my house. I’m not going to lose my granddaughter,” said Duarte, 45. “We’re better off in a tent.”

But on Friday afternoon, they accepted a good Samaritan’s offer to borrow a 40-foot trailer, and they were packing up to go.

Staff writers Jason Green and Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.

Anyone seeking information about people missing in the wake of the Camp Fire or who wants to report someone missing or accounted for can view the latest list from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at buttecounty.net/sheriffcoroner and call one of the following three hotlines: 530-538-6570, 530-538-7544, 530-538-7671.

Information about evacuation shelters for people displaced by the Camp Fire can be found at the Butte County website at buttecounty.net.</s>The number of names on the missing person’s list for Northern California’s Camp fire grew to 1,011 Friday night, nearly doubling the number reported Thursday, though fire officials warned that the list may include duplicate names.

Search-and-rescue officials also discovered eight more bodies in the Camp fire’s aftermath, bringing the death total to 71. Three bodies have been recovered in the Woosley fire in Southern California, making the state’s death toll now 74.

“I want you to understand that this is a dynamic list. It will fluctuate both up and down every day,” Butte County Sheriff-Coroner Kory L. Honea said of the missing person’s list Friday night.

Paradise reeling: The death toll from the #CampFire rises to 71 and the number of people missing soars over 1000. The wildfire has scorched 146,000 acres, destroyed over 15,000 structures and is now 50% contained. The search for the missing continues. https://t.co/VOdZlYY6uJ pic.twitter.com/eNuUzk60Mz — Marcus Yam 火 (@yamphoto) November 17, 2018

Honea said the number of people grew significantly Friday because law enforcement now has more resources to address missing person reports, including a newly established call center and more time to review reports that were emailed to law enforcement.

Honea also noted that the list may include misspelled names and names of people who are not actually missing.

“In the initial hours of this extraordinarily chaotic event, as people were calling in, talking about people that they couldn’t find ... that information was being entered in as rapidly as possible by public safety dispatchers,” he said.

The Camp fire is considered the most deadly and destructive wildfire in the state of California. Investigators continue to scour the town of Paradise and the surrounding areas, searching for additional remains and assessing the damage.

I keep thinking about a conversation I had with a veteran firefighter about the fatalities on the #CampFire. So many people assumed it wouldn't be as bad as it was and refused to evacuate. When he got back to their homes, they were on fire. — Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) November 17, 2018

“I can’t let perfection get in the way of progress,” Honea told reporters. “It’s important for us to get the information out so that we can get started on identifying these unaccounted individuals.”

Since last week, the Camp fire has spread to an estimated 146,000 acres, devastating the town of Paradise and forcing 52,000 people to flee their homes. Officials said the blaze was 50 percent contained by Friday.

The Woolsey fire in Southern California has burned more than 98,000 acres, forcing thousands to evacuate Malibu and surrounding areas. As of Friday, the Woolsey fire was 67 percent contained.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit California to meet with people impacted by the fires and assess the damage on Saturday. The White House has not released details on which locations Trump will visit.</s>(CNN) — More than 1,000 people are unaccounted as California's deadliest wildfire enters a second week.

The death toll rose to 71 in the Camp Fire that started November 8 in Northern California. The list of people who are unaccounted for grew to 1,011 names, but that number may change once authorities follow up with families to confirm if they've heard from missing relatives, Butte County Sheriff and Coroner Kory Honea said Friday.

In addition to the dozens killed, three other deaths were reported in the Woolsey Fire in Southern California, bringing the statewide death toll from the wildfires to 74.

Hundreds of deputies, National Guard troops, anthropologists and coroners are sifting through leveled homes and mangled cars for remains.</s>Local authorities said Friday that the number of persons reported missing as a result of the week-long wildfire in northern California has gone up to more than a 1000 while the death toll along with another fire in the south of the state has reached 74.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, during a press conference updated the number of missing persons, which has gone up from 631 on Thursday to 1,011.
The death toll in the Camp Fire rises to 71, with the statewide total at 74. The number of missing and unaccounted-for people rises to more than 1000.