Death Toll from Northern California Wildfire Back Down to 85

The number of those who died in California’s deadliest wildfire is back down to 85 after authorities determined that a bone fragment previously classified as unidentified belongs to a victim named in January.

The Butte County Sheriff’s office said that the number of unidentified victims from the November 2018 Camp Fire now stands at one.

The fast-moving fire destroyed 14,000 homes, most of them in the town of Paradise in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The office said a bone fragment found among the remains of Robert Quinn appeared too small to be his and officials thought it belonged to someone else. But anthropologists determined that the piece had shrunk in the fire.

Investigators blamed the fire on faulty equipment owned by the San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas & Electric.

Related:

• One of 86 Victims Of California’s Deadliest Wildfire Identified
• PG&E Cuts Power to 48K California Customers to Avert Wildfire Risk
• California Legislators Approve $21 Billion Liability Fund for Utilities

Topics Catastrophe California Natural Disasters Wildfire