美国国家公共电台 NPR Search For The Missing In California Wildfires Continues

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

More than two weeks after the nation's deadliest fire in a century erupted in Northern California, crews are still trying to find hundreds of people. The Camp Fire has killed at least 85. It's now fully 1 contained. But dozens of disaster workers from across the country are coming to the town of Paradise to help with the search mission. NPR's Bobby Allyn is there and followed a team of searchers as they scoured 2 the incinerated city.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE 3: There's about two dozen search-and-rescue personnel in white jumpsuits and hardhats wearing respirators. You can see the remnants of some metal furniture, looks like a fireplace that is still standing 4. And the whole search crew is just waiting to see if the cadaver 5 dog finds any human remains 6.

Chuck Williams is the cadaver dog handler. He came up from the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The dog, a black lab named Cinder 7, has been trained to sit if she detects any remains. But rain over the last three days here has turned mounds 8 of ash into a muddy muck.

CHUCK WILLIAMS: What we're hunting for is so minute. Now, if there's more remnants, the dogs can absolutely function. But the water has not helped the dogs.

ALLYN: This process could take months. The burn scar of the Camp Fire is immense - 240 square miles across what was once rolling vineyards, apple orchards 9 and rows of evergreen 10 trees. Williams has spent his career responding to disasters. And still, this scene takes him aback.

WILLIAMS: The magnitude - it's like being in a war zone. And it's like watching a war movie, unfortunately.

ALLYN: When remains are found, they are sent to a mortuary in Sacramento where forensics experts try to identify them. Then they'll be returned to loved ones. As Williams searched street after street of Paradise, another thing quickly jumped out at him. The remnants of this fire were unlike anything he's seen before, and he's visited countless 11 fire scenes. Williams says this fire was exceptionally hot.

WILLIAMS: Just by the level of ash - there was literally 12 nothing left. It had just almost been, like, through a cremation 13 process.

ALLYN: Meanwhile, for Paradise residents who evacuated 14, keeping tabs on the missing list is being juggled 15 with several other dire 16 concerns, like finding a home, sometimes finding a job and, for many of them, joining a new community. Bob Grimm lived in Paradise for 40 years. He and his wife left for a dentist appointment right before the fire broke out, and he hasn't been back since. When Grimm first looked at the missing list, he saw the name of his friend, who he knew made it out.

BOB GRIMM: So we got a hold of his son, and his son said, yeah, dad's OK. And I said, well, you call your dad and tell him get his name off that list. Give him a big hug for me. And then also let him know that even in the bad days, today's a good day because you're alive.

ALLYN: Many others have been removed from the unaccounted list in the same way. Grimm says he's confident his friend won't be the last.

GRIMM: All I have is hope. That's all I have is hope.

ALLYN: Butte County officials have been equally as optimistic, but they also acknowledge, because of the magnitude of this catastrophe 17, some people will be forever lost. Bobby Allyn, NPR News, Paradise, Calif.