California fires: Death toll rises to at least 40

The death toll in California’s deadliest fires has rise to at least 40 as shifting winds forced thousands more to evacuate their homes on Saturday, with hundreds of people still missing.

More than 10,000 firefighters supported by air tankers and helicopters overhead were battling 16 major wildfires in areas north of San Francisco that have consumed nearly 214,000 acres over seven days, or roughly 865sq km (334 square miles).

The 40 confirmed fatalities, including 22 in Sonoma County, already make it the deadliest fire event in California history.

With 235 people still missing on Saturday in Sonoma County alone, and rubble from thousands of incinerated dwellings yet to be searched, authorities have said the number of deaths from the North Bay fires would likely climb.

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Some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes, including 3,000 evacuated on Saturday from the city of Santa Rosa, about 80km north of San Francisco.

“This is truly one of the greatest tragedies that California has ever faced. The devastation is just unbelievable. It is a horror that no one could have imagined,” California governor Jerry Brown said on a visit to a devastated Santa Rosa.

The fires have damaged or destroyed about 5,700 structures, reducing homes and businesses to ash. The fires’ death toll surpassed the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.

There were some glimmers of hope as winds weakened, and firefighters made progress with blazes such as the Cascade Fire, about 80 miles northeast of Santa Rosa, which was nearly 10,000 acres and 87 per cent contained on Saturday.

Winds are expected to weaken, which should help in fighting the fires but high temperatures and dry conditions that feed the fires will remain through the weekend, forecasters said.

“This is still very much in play. The danger is still very present,” said US senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, who accompanied Mr Brown on the visit.

At least a dozen Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries were damaged or destroyed, throwing the state’s wine industry and related tourism into disarray.

Firefighters from states including Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada have joined crews from California to battle the fires.

From the air, some 70 helicopters and large aircraft including a 747, two DC-10s and about a dozen air tankers doused flames across the affected area with fire retardant, officials said. Aircraft have dropped more than two million gallons of fire retardant.

Cal Fire (the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) had estimated the fires would be contained by October 20th.

On the ground, prison inmates were helping firefighters - sometimes digging lines to help contain fires, other times preparing meals at command centres, always watched over by guard.

In an area largely dependent on immigrant farm labour, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they would temporarily suspend routine operations during the emergency, “except in the event of a serious criminal presenting a public safety threat”.

US senator Dianne Feinstein, another California Democrat accompanying the governor, pledged more federal aid to the region to help it through the devastation.

Whole neighborhoods of Santa Rosa have been reduced to landscapes of ash, smoldering debris and burned-out vehicles.

Some victims were asleep when flames engulfed their homes, and many survivors had only minutes to flee.

The year’s wildfire season is one of the worst in history in the United States, with nearly 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares) burned, just behind 2012, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Reuters