NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As firefighters make progress on containing the region’s wildland fires, law enforcement officials have continued the tragic task of recovering and identifying the dead, with the death toll from the fires rising again on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, the Sonoma County Coroner’s office reported that five more deaths had been confirmed from the fires, raising that county’s deaths to 22.
The identifications and notifications to next of kin were being made on Saturday, with more name to be released on Sunday, officials said.
The 22 deaths confirmed by Sonoma County officials so far come from the 94,370-acre Central LNU Complex, composed of the Tubbs, Pocket, Nuns and Oakmont fires.
The complex’s latest count of destroyed structures rose to 3,462 on Saturday evening, with 36,746 still threatened, according to Cal Fire.
The Central LNU Complex’s growing damage assessment has pushed it to the top of the list of the most damaging wildland fire in the state’s history.
It has surpassed the 2,900 homes destroyed in the 1991 Tunnel fire, a rekindle of the Oakland Hills fire in Alameda County, although so far that fire remains the deadliest incident, with 25 deaths attributed to it.
The 2015 Valley fire in Lake County, with 1,955 structures destroyed and four confirmed deaths, remains in the top four most damaging fires in the state’s history.
The Redwood fire in Mendocino County, which is being managed along with the Sulphur fire as the Mendocino Lake Complex, has claimed eight lives, according to Cal Fire. No deaths have been reported as a result of the Sulphur fire.
On Saturday the fire-related death toll also was confirmed to have risen In Napa County.
The Napa County Sheriff’s Office said two more bodies were found at a residence in the 1900 block of Soda Canyon Road, bringing the total to six.
It’s believed that the two victims are 90-year-old Sally Lewis, the homeowner, and her caretaker 50-year-old Teresa Santos, but the sheriff’s office said positive identifications have not yet been made.
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Death toll from regional fires rises again; Central LNU Complex among most damaging incidents in state history
- Elizabeth Larson
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