Rain hinders search but helps nearly put out California fire

PARADISE, Calif. — Rain is helping to extinguish a deadly wildfire in Northern California’s Gold Rush country, but the moisture is also turning ash into thick paste and hindering the hunt for telltale fragments of bone that could indicate a body.

Searchers resumed their grim task Friday afternoon after a downpour eased up in Paradise, California. They fanned out across the ruins of a mobile home park, some combing debris with rakes while others lifted up twisted metal to peer underneath.

Craig Covey, who leads a search team from Southern California’s Orange County, said they were searching a mobile home park for seniors for the second time because there are people still missing whose last known address was in this neighborhood.

The searchers, many in yellow rain slickers and hard hats to protect against falling branches, looked for clues that may indicate someone couldn’t get out, such as a car in the driveway or a wheelchair ramp. They’re looking not only for bone, but anything that could be a pile of cremated ashes.

The nation’s deadliest wildfire in the past century has killed at least 84 people, and more than 560 are still unaccounted for. Despite the inclement weather, more than 800 volunteers searched for remains on Thanksgiving and again Friday.

Covey’s team of about 30 had been working for several hours Friday morning before stopping and returning to a staging area.

While the rain is making everybody colder and wetter, they’re keeping the mission in mind, search volunteer Chris Stevens said, standing under an awning as the team waited out a stretch of heavy rain.