Paradise fire update: Camp Fire rages on as 23 dead – Latest pictures from California

The Camp Fire in Northern California has become the third-deadliest and the most destructive fire in state history. The entire town of Paradise, in California, has been wiped out by the fire, which started on Thursday and is continuing to burn in nearby areas. An anthropology team from California State University, Chico, has now been brought in, as in some cases “the only remains we are able to find are bones or bone fragments”.

Butte county sheriff Kory Honea said: “This weighs heavy on all of us, myself and especially those staff members who are out there doing what is important work but certainly difficult work.”

The victims have still not been identified and at least 110 people are still believed to be missing.

Officials are hoping many of the elderly on the list are only missing because they don’t have the means to contact their loved ones.

Mr Honea added the agency was bringing in a mobile DNA lab and encouraged people with missing relatives to submit samples to aid in the identification process.

The blaze has spread 164 square miles (425 square kilometers) and has cost at least $8.1 million (£1,387,260) to fight so far, according to Steve Kaufmann, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“This is getting bad,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard, with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park Maryland.

“We’ll get sustained winds of up to 40 mph and gusts between 60 mph and 70 mph,” he said early Sunday of the Santa Ana “devil wind” hitting the Los Angeles area where the Woolsey Fire has been burning since Thursday in the tinder-dry canyon of Ventura County and claimed at least 2 lives.

The air-masses blowing across the western U.S. deserts including Death Valley toward the coast are expected to bring the sustained high winds at least through Tuesday, he said.

“It’s nothing but bad news,” said Chenard.

Where are the other fires burning in California? 

At least 25 people have died across California due to the wildfires.

The Woolsey fire began south of Simi Valley on Thursday afternoon and has continued to spread ever since.

So far, the fire has left at least two people dead and destroyed more than 170 homes.

At least 200,000 people have also been evacuated, as the the fire is only five percent contained, despite burning more than 83,000 acres, according to Accuweather.

Hill Fire, another fire elsewhere in southern California, has burned more than 4,500 areas and is 65 percent contained.

The whole of Malibu was also evacuated this week, where some of Hollywood’s biggest stars live, as the fires quickly spread.

Officials have warned dry winds from Sunday to Tuesday may make the fire worse.