Dozen Dead, Hundreds Missing as California Wildfire Goes out of Control PHOTO

The death toll recorded from a wildfire in Northern California has risen to more than a dozen people and Hundreds missing, making it the deadliest  the state has ever seen.

More than 20 bodies have been found so far from that fire, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told a news briefing on Sunday evening. Nearly 230 people were still unaccounted for, he said. 

At least five search teams were working in Paradise – a town of 27,000 that was largely incinerated on Thursday – and in surrounding communities. Authorities called in a mobile DNA lab and anthropologists to help identify victims of the most destructive wildfire in California history.

By early afternoon, one of the two black hearses stationed in Paradise had picked up another set of remains. People looking for friends or relatives called evacuation centres, hospitals, police and the coroner’s office.

Governor Jerry Brown said California is requesting aid from Donald Trump’s administration. The president has blamed ‘poor’ forest management for the fires. 

Mr Brown told a press briefing that federal and state governments must do more forest management, but said that was not the source of the problem. ‘Managing all the forests in everywhere we can does not stop climate change,’ Mr Brown said. ‘And those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we’re now witnessing, and will continue to witness in the coming years.’