Tally of Missing in California`s Deadliest Blaze Surpasses 600

At least 63 people have been confirmed dead in the Camp Fire, which erupted a week ago in the drought-parched Sierra foothills 175 miles (280 km) north of San Francisco and now ranks as one of the most lethal single U.S. wildfires since the turn of the last century.

Authorities attributed the high death toll in part to the staggering speed with which the wind-driven flames, fueled by desiccated scrub and trees, raced with the little warning through Paradise, a town of 27,000.

Nearly 12,000 homes and buildings, including most of the town, were incinerated last Thursday night hours after the blaze erupted, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) has said.

Read: Nine Killed, 35 Missing in California Wildfire

What was left was a ghostly, smoky expanse of empty lots covered in ash and strewn with twisted wreckage and debris.

Thousands of additional structures were still threatened by the blaze, and as many as 50,000 people were under evacuation orders at the height of the blaze. An army of firefighters, many from distant states, labored to contain and suppress the flames.

The revised official roster of 630 individuals whose whereabouts and fate remained unknown is more than double the 297 listed earlier in the day by the Butte County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Kory Honea said nearly 300 people initially reported as unaccounted for had been found alive. He said the list of missing would keep fluctuating with names being added and others removed, either because they turn up safe or are identified among the dead.

The higher confirmed death toll, and rising number of those unaccounted for,were revealed at an evening news briefing by Honea, who said the remains of seven more Camp Fire victims had been located since Wednesday's tally of 56.

REUTERS