Death toll rises to 25 in California fires, as more victims found

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott Maclean said there were no details immediately available about the circumstances of the deaths at Paradise, a mountain community some 90 miles (145 km) north of Sacramento left devastated by the Camp Fire. He said the bodies were badly burned, which would make identification difficult.

The Camp Fire burned down more than 6,700 homes and businesses in Paradise, more structures than any other California wildfire on record. It grew to 105,000 acres on Saturday with 20% containment.

About 157,000 people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties have been evacuated due to two fires in the region. Photograph: Matthew Simmons/Getty Images

Winds were expected to dramatically increase, which could create the extreme fire conditions that caused the blaze to initially spread so rapidly.

The Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea, said 110 people were listed as missing and he urged residents to be vigilant and heed evacuation warnings and orders.

“I don’t like having to get up here every night to tell you about more bodies we found,” he said.

In southern California, two bodies were found severely burned inside a car on a long residential driveway in Malibu, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Chief John Benedict said. The home is on a winding stretch of Mulholland Highway with steep panoramic views, where on Saturday the roadway was littered with rocks, a few large boulders and fallen power lines, some of them still on fire. 

Hospital workers and first responders evacuate patients from the Feather River hospital in Paradise, California. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Woolsey fire burning in the area was 0% contained, officials said, but added that the dry Santa Ana winds that spread the flames across 70,000 acres over the previous two days had slowed, giving firefighters a better chance of making progress on perimeter control.

“We had a tough night in relation to this firefight,” the Los Angeles county fire chief, Daryl Osby, told reporters gathered in Thousand Oaks, explaining that more homes were lost to the flames before morning. No official count was available, but he said there had been significant loss and that damage assessment teams would work throughout the day.

“From our perspective,” he said, “although we did lose a lot of homes, we saved thousands.”

Calling the fire conditions the most extreme and toughest he had seen, Osby said 900 firefighters battled the blaze through the night and that all local resources were deployed. Back-up from Arizona was on the way, he said, and they would soon ask for more help from state and federal agencies.

The Ventura county fire chief, Mark Lorenzen, echoed Osby, saying the agencies “made heroic efforts in saving lives and saving property”.

A firefighter in Paradise rescues a cat. Photograph: Dani Anguiano for the Guardian

“We know Mother Nature has given us some reprieve today,” he said, “but I need everyone to remain vigilant.”

Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration to ensure federal funds were available, but he also rebuked the state. Tweeting, the president wrote: “There was no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor.” He also threatened to withhold funds, due to “gross mismanagement of the forests”.

More than 200,000 people have had to flee their homes since Thursday. Flames from the Woolsey fire, the worse of two fires in southern California, forced evacuations from Malibu to West Hills and into parts of Thousand Oaks, still reeling from the deaths of 12 people in a shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill the day before the fire.

Woolsey has been more destructive than most fires in the area.

“It is changing constantly,” Buschow said, explaining that though winds had died down, dry conditions were fueling the blaze. “Hopefully they will make some progress today but the bad news is that by tomorrow that weather is supposed to be back with the big winds. My understanding is we are going to be at red flag conditions through Tuesday.”