A woman who owns property near the point where a deadly wildfire started in Northern California says she was warned by a utility company last week that crews would need to come onto her land to investigate power lines causing sparks.
The fire started last Thursday in an area of 64 acres of land in Pulga, California, owned by Betsy Ann Cowley. It engulfed the nearby town of Paradise, killing 42 people.
Cowley said she had received an email the day before, on Wednesday, from Pacific Gas & Electric Co saying that crews needed to come to her property.
Betsy Ann Cowley, who owned the land where the deadliest single fire in Californian history started, walks through Pulga, near where investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise
A day before a deadly blaze destroyed a California town, the giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. got in touch with Cowley, saying they needed access to her property because their power lines were causing sparks
The email said the company was sending employees to work on the high-power lines because ‘they were having problems with sparks.’
Two days before the fire started, PG&E told customers in nine counties, including Butte County, that it might shut off their power November 8 because of extreme fire danger.
But the utility company called off the shutdown, telling customers nine hours after the Camp Fire began that the weather conditions ‘did not warrant this safety measure’.
The fire started about 6.30am that morning.
Fire crews clear rubble from the road near a building burned in the Camp Fire on Monday 12 November
A member of the Sacramento County Coroner’s office looks for human remains in the rubble of a house burned at the Camp Fire
PG&E said Thursday it experienced a problem on an electrical transmission line near the site of the massive fire, minutes before the blaze broke out. The company declined to discuss the email when contacted by The Associated Press.
California fire investigators were at Cowley’s property on Monday, as the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
CalFire spokesman Scott McLean said ‘electric equipment’ was being included in the probe.
Sheriff’s deputies recover the remains of a victim of the Camp Fire on Saturday, November 10, 2018, in Paradise, California
Krystin Harvey, left, comforts her daughter Araya Cipollini at the remains of their home burned in the Camp Fire
Officials said the Camp Fire only grew moderately on Sunday despite new wind gusts, but dangerously low humidity levels will continue into the week.
More than a dozen coroner search and recovery teams searched for human remains from the fire – which is the deadliest in state history – as anxious relatives visited shelters and called police hoping to find loved ones alive.
Lisa Jordan drove 600 miles from Yakima, Washington, to search for her uncle, Nick Clark, and his wife, Anne Clark, who lived in Paradise.
Anne Clark suffers from multiple sclerosis and is unable to walk. No one knows if they were able to evacuate, or even if their house still exists, she said.
Thousands of firefighters spent a fifth day digging battle lines to contain California’s worst ever wildfire as the wind-whipped flames cleaved a merciless path through the state’s northern hills, leaving death and devastation in their wake
Chris and Nancy Brown embrace while looking over the remains of their burned residence after the Camp fire tore through the region in Paradise
‘I’m staying hopeful,’ she said. ‘Until the final word comes, you keep fighting against it.’
Authorities were bringing in two mobile morgue units and requesting 150 search and rescue personnel. Officials were unsure of the exact number of missing.
‘I want to recover as many remains as we possibly can, as soon as we can. Because I know the toll it takes on loved ones,’ Honea said.
Chaplains accompanied some coroner search teams that visited dozens of addresses belonging to people reported missing.
For those on the grim search, no cars in the driveway is good, one car a little more ominous and multiple burned-out vehicles equals a call for extra vigilance.
Wildfires have broken out on both ends of the state. Together, they were blamed for 44 deaths, including two in celebrity-studded Malibu in Southern California
Stan Craig’s sister, Beverly Craig Powers, has not returned numerous texts and calls, and the adult children of her partner, Robert Duvall, have not heard from their father, he said.
The couple was last seen evacuating their Paradise home on Thursday with two pickup trucks and a travel trailer, so they could be camping.
He knows friends and family are still being reunited with missing loved ones, but he said his unease grows every day.
Still, the Fresno, California, resident wasn’t planning on heading to the fire area. As a former firefighter himself, he said he understands the chaos wildfires cause.
‘I’m going to stay here until I have something more to go on,’ he said.
Shawn Slack rests after felling trees burned in California’s Camp Fire, Monday, November 12, 2018
The blaze was part of an outbreak of wildfires on both ends of the state. Together, they were blamed for 44 deaths, including two in celebrity-studded Malibu in Southern California, where firefighters appeared to be gaining ground against a roughly 143-square-mile blaze that destroyed at least 370 structures, with hundreds more feared lost.
All told, more 8,000 firefighters statewide were battling wildfires that destroyed more than 7,000 structures and scorched more than 325 square miles, the flames feeding on dry brush and driven by blowtorch winds.
There were tiny signs of some sense of order returning to Paradise and anonymous gestures meant to rally the spirits of firefighters who have worked in a burned-over wasteland for days.
Firefighter Jose Corona sprays water as flames consume from the Camp Fire consume a home in Magalia, California
The fire started last Thursday in an area of 64 acres of land in Pulga, California, owned by Betsy Ann Cowley. It engulfed the nearby town of Paradise, killing 42 people
Flames consume a home as the Camp Fire tears through Paradise, California, on Thursday, November 8, 2018
Large American flags stuck into the ground lined both sides of the road at the town limits, and temporary stop signs appeared overnight at major intersections. Downed power lines that had blocked roads were cut away, and crews took down burned trees with chain saws.
The 42 dead in Northern California surpassed the deadliest single fire on record, a 1933 blaze in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. A series of wildfires in Northern California’s wine country last fall killed 44 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes.
State officials said the cause of the inferno was under investigation.