By Paul Elias The Associated Press Gillian Flaccus Sat., Nov. 10, 2018 PARADISE, CALIF.—No one is left in Paradise. Abandoned, charred vehicles clutter the main thoroughfare, evidence of the panicked evacuation a day earlier as a wildfire tore through the Northern California community. Nine people have been found dead. Entire neighbourhoods are levelled. The business district is destroyed. In one day, this Sierra Nevada foothill town of 27,000 founded in the 1800s was largely incinerated by flames that moved so fast there was nothing firefighters could do. The blaze that started Thursday outside the hilly town of Paradise has grown to 156 square 404 square kilometres and destroyed more than 6,700 buildings, almost all of them homes, making it California’s most destructive wildfire since record-keeping began. But crews have made gains and the fire is partially contained, officials said Saturday. The dead were found inside their cars and outside vehicles or homes after a desperate evacuation that Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea called “the worst-case scenario.” Their identities were not yet known. “It is what we feared for a long time,” Honea said, noting that there was no time to go door to door. Article Continued Below With fires also burning in Southern California, state officials put the total number of people forced from their homes at more than 200,000. Evacuation orders included the entire city of Malibu, which is home to 13,000, among them some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Read more: At least 9 dead as fire incinerates Northern… [Read full story]
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