California Wildfire: Still rising, death toll at 77 while nearly 1000 missing

On Sunday, the number of victims of California's deadliest wildfire rose further to 77 while the number of those missing jumped drastically to 993.

A vigil was held at the First Christian Church in Chico, close to Paradise town, to honour the victims of the fire which begun more than a week.

The local sheriffs department after the vigil said, "Of the 77 fatalities, we have tentatively identified 67 individuals".

The previous day, US President Donald Trump paid a visit to the state where he met with firefighters, local leaders and the state's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

Despite recently scaling -partially- back from his initial claim the fire were avoidable but for the "gross mismanagement" of forests and threatening to cut federal funding to California over its alleged "gross mismanagement" of forests,  Mr. Trump doubled down on it saying, "I'm committed to make sure that we get all of this cleaned out and protected, (we've) got to take care of the forest, it's very important,"  with the Paradise town.

Over 10,000 homes have been destroyed in the blaze which has devoured an area roughly the size of Chicago, and essentially wiped Paradise off the map forcing thousands to flee and many found temporary refuge at churches or in tents.

The National Weather Service said low humidity and gusty winds would continue across portions of California through Monday but the pattern could change, predicting rainfall of Tuesday night and Wednesday for the paradise area.




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