As search crews found another body Wednesday in a house burned by a massive Southern California wildfire, officials fear many more deaths in the destructive blazes at both ends of the state that have now claimed 51 lives.
A victim who apparently perished in the Woolsey Fire was located inside a burned home in Agoura Hills, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The grim discovery marked the third death from the Woolsey Fire, the monster inferno that swept through Los Angeles and Ventura counties leveling nearly 500 structures and blackening 97,620 acres, officials said.
The deadliest and most destructive of the two wildfires is the Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County, which has killed at least 48 people.
Thom Porter, chief of strategic planning for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, said the death toll from the Camp Fire is expected to go higher as search crews comb through at least 7,600 homes destroyed by the blaze.
“It is by far the most deadly single fire in California history and it’s going to get worse, unfortunately,” Porter said of the Camp Fire.
There were more than 100 people missing in the Butte County fire zones, though officials were working to track them down. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office has received 1,513 calls for welfare checks and authorities had located 231 people safely by Monday night, officials said.
Gov. Jerry Brown toured the devastation caused by the Camp Fire on Wednesday with Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The government leaders visited firefighters still battling the blaze, which burned 135,000 acres and obliterated the town of Paradise, destroying nearly every home in the community of 30,000 people.
“This is one of the worst disasters I’ve ever seen in my career, hands down,” Long said at a news conference Wednesday in Northern California.
Brown said the destruction “looks like a war zone.” He said he spoke earlier Wednesday to President Donald Trump, “who pledged the full resources of the federal government” to help in the recovery effort.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday declared a public health emergency in California.
“We are working closely with state health authorities and monitoring the needs of healthcare facilities to provide whatever they may need to save lives and protect health,” Azar said in a statement. “This declaration will help ensure that Americans who are threatened by these dangerous wildfires and who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program have continuous access to the care they need.”
Two massive blazes forced the evacuation of at least two hospitals and eight other health care facilities. A smoke advisory was issued for portions of Los Angeles County amid concerns that smoke from the fires could present a “significant health threat” for people with asthma and other lung conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Thousands of exhausted firefighters battling the Camp Fire in Northern California and the Woolsey Fire in Southern California appeared to be getting a handle on the two massive blazes.
Chief Ken Pimlott, director of Cal Fire, said weather conditions at both fires have improved and the strong winds firefighters were seeing over the past three days have started to dissipate.
But Pimlott said “critical fire conditions” still existed with an abundance of dry vegetation in both fire zones that could flare-up with the slightest spark.
“We’re not keeping our eye off this ball at all,” Pimlott said Wednesday, adding that 9,000 firefighters were working on the front lines of both blazes.
Firefighters, with the help of out-of-state fire crews, were showing progress in their twin battles to subdue the widely-destructive blazes that have blackened a combined acreage larger than the size of New York City.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday night that 13 additional people were confirmed dead from the Camp Fire, which first started on Nov. 8. Ten of the bodies were located in the city of Paradise. Seven of those people were found in their burned homes.
Another six bodies were recovered on Tuesday, officials said.
The death toll from the Camp Fire now stands at 48, making it the deadliest single wildfire in California’s recorded history.
Two prison inmate firefighters were among three injured battling the Camp Fire, fire officials told ABC News.
The blaze was 35 percent contained on Wednesday.
“The entire community of Paradise is a toxic wasteland right now,” Paradise City Council Member Melissa Schuster, who lost her home in the calamity, told ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast. “In addition to that, and this is the hardest part for me to even talk about, is the number of fatalities is [among] things that we don’t know at this moment and that’s something that has to be determined before people can move back in.”
Schuster said teams from the Butte County coroner’s office are combing through thousands of destroyed homes and burned cars in Paradise.
“We will rebuild our homes, we will rebuild our town stronger, better, safer and more beautiful than ever,” she told ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast.
The Woolsey Fire, which also started on Nov. 8 in Southern California’s Ventura County, rapidly spread south to Los Angeles County.
At least 483 structures, including many homes, have been destroyed by the blaze, which swept through the celebrity enclaves of Malibu and Calabasas.
The fire killed two people in Malibu, where the entire city has been under a mandatory evacuation order, officials said.
At least three firefighters were injured battling the Woolsey Fire.
The blaze was 47 percent contained on Wednesday, as firefighters successfully stretched containment lines. A flare-up Tuesday in the Lake Sherwood and Hidden Valley areas of Ventura County that was threatening to take off in the windy weather was quickly smothered by firefighters.
“We are not out of the woods yet. We still have tough conditions,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen told reporters at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said the Woolsey Fire, which has spread to an area about the size of Denver, was the largest his department has battled in 100 years.
Despite Tuesday’s flare-up, Osby said, “We are getting the upper hand” on the blaze.
Another wildfire in the area, the Hill Fire, was 94 percent contained Wednesday after burning 4,531 acres in Ventura County, according Cal Fire.
ABC News’ Karma Allen, Brandon Baur, Will Carr, Stacy Chen, Matthew Fuhrman, Bonnie Mclean and Daniel Peck contributed to this report
