Grim search for dead as California fires rage

PARADISE, United States: Search teams scoured the carnage of California’s most destructive ever wildfire on Sunday, with the state-wide death toll climbing to 25 as high winds and tinder-dry conditions hampered the effort to save lives.

Firefighters took advantage of a brief calm overnight to make headway against the multiple blazes, but conditions were expected to be hellish on Sunday with winds reaching as high as 70 miles an hour.

In fire zones north and south, acrid smoke blanketed the sky for miles, the sun barely visible. On the ground, cars caught in the blaze were reduced to metal carcasses, while power lines were gnawed by the flames.

The largest inferno -- the so-called "Camp Fire" in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Sacramento -- has destroyed 6,700 homes, business and other buildings in the town of Paradise, effectively wiping it off the map.

Local sheriff Kory Honea told a news conference late on Saturday 14 more bodies had been found in and around the devastated community of 27,000 people, bringing the number of dead to 23. Only two wildfires have claimed more lives in California, the most recent more than a quarter-century ago.