Authorities on Friday revised the death toll from last autumn’s devastating Camp Fire in Northern California, the deadliest blaze in the state’s history.
The Butte County sheriff’s office changed the number of deaths from 86 to 85, because remains previously thought to be from two people were recently identified as those of one person.
Two people remain “unaccounted for,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. Butte County is north of Sacramento and includes the community of Paradise, which was annihilated by the fire.
The Sacramento Police Department recently found a man who had been listed as unaccounted for after the Camp Fire, the sheriff’s office said. He is John Demianew, who had a warrant for his arrest. Sacramento Police took him into custody.
The fire, which began November 8, destroyed almost 13,972 homes, 528 businesses and 4,293 other buildings in the two and a half weeks it blazed through the area.
It covered more than 153,000 acres, according to the latest update from Cal Fire, the state’s forestry and fire protection agency.
The cause of the Camp Fire, Cal Fire said last month in its latest incident information report, was still under investigation.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state’s largest utility, said its crews found a damaged transmission tower and holes in a power pole at separate locations near the site where the Camp Fire started.
In a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E said one of its employees called 911 on November 8 – the day the deadly wildfire began – after spotting flames in the vicinity of a high-voltage tower near the town of Pulga in Butte County.
