TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 3A
California fire toll currently at 42
JOHN LOCHER I Associated Press
Anthropology students observe as human remains are recovered from a burned out home at the Camp Fire, Sunday, Nov.
11, in Paradise, Calif.
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS
AND DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
PARADISE, Calif. — The
dead were found in burned-
out cars, in the smoldering
ruins of their homes, or next
to their vehicles, apparently
overcome by smoke and
flames before they could
jump in behind the wheel
and escape. In some cases,
there were only charred frag
ments of bone, so small that
coroner’s investigators used
a wire basket to sift and sort
them.
At least 42 people were
confirmed dead in the wild
fire that turned the Northern
California town of Paradise
and outlying areas into hell
on earth, making it the dead
liest blaze in state history.
The search for bodies contin
ued Monday.
Hundreds of people were
unaccounted for by the
sheriff’s reckoning, four
days after the fire swept
over the town of 27,000 and
practically wiped it off the
map with flames so fierce
that authorities brought in a
mobile DNA lab and forensic
anthropologists to help iden
tify the dead.
Meanwhile, a landowner
near where the blaze began,
Betsy Ann Cowley, said she
got an email from Pacific
Gas & Electric Co. the day
before the fire last week tell
ing her that crews needed
to come onto her property
because the utility’s power
lines were causing sparks.
PG&E had no comment on
the email, and state officials
said the cause of the inferno
was under investigation.
As the search for victims
dragged on, friends and rela
tives of the missing called
hospitals, police, shelters and
the coroner’s office in hopes
of learning what became of
their loved ones. Paradise
was a popular retirement
community, and about a
quarter of the population was
over 65.
Tad Teays awaited word
on his 90-year-old dementia-
stricken mother. Darlina
Duarte was desperate for
information about her half-
brother, a diabetic who was
largely housebound because
he had lost his legs. And Bar
bara Hall tried in vain to find
out whether her aunt and the
woman’s husband, who are in
their 80s and 90s, made it out
alive from their retirement
community.
“Did they make it in their
car? Did they get away? Did
their car go over the edge of a
mountain somewhere? I just
don’t know,” said Hall, add
ing that the couple had only
a landline and calls were not
going through to it.
Megan James, of New
foundland, Canada, searched
via Twitter from the other
side of the continent for infor
mation about her aunt and
uncle, whose house in Para
dise burned down and whose
vehicles were still there. On
Monday, she asked on Twit
ter for someone to take over
the posts, saying she is “so
emotionally and mentally
exhausted.”
“I need to sleep and cry,”
James added. “Just PRAY.
Please.”
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.
Some of the thousands
of people forced from their
homes by the blaze were
allowed to return, and
authorities reopened U.S.
101, a major freeway through
the fire zone in Los Angeles
and Ventura counties.
Malibu celebrities and
mobile-home dwellers in
nearby mountains were
slowly learning whether their
homes had been spared or
reduced to ash.
All told, more 8,000 fire
fighters statewide were bat
tling wildfires that destroyed
more than 7,000 structures
and scorched more than 325
square miles the flames feed
ing on dry brush and driven
by blowtorch winds.
In Northern California,
fire crews still fighting the
blaze that obliterated Para
dise contended with wind
gusts up to 40 mph overnight,
the flames jumping 300 feet
across Lake Oroville. The
fire had grown to 177 square
miles and was 25 percent
contained, authorities said.
Winds were expected to
weaken on Monday night.
Greg Woodcox, who led a
caravan of vehicles that was
overcome by flames, said he
heard screams and watched
a friend die as the heat blew
out the vehicle’s windows.
Four other people also died.
The 58-year-old told the
San Francisco Chronicle he
was in a Jeep ahead of the
other vehicles and ran when
the flames overtook them. He
followed a fox down a steep
embankment and survived
by submerging himself in a
stream for nearly an hour.
But there were tiny signs of
some sense of order return
ing to Paradise and also
anonymous gestures meant
to rally the spirits of firefight
ers who have worked in a
burned-over wasteland for
days.
Large American flags
stuck into the ground lined
both sides of the road at the
town limits, and temporary
stop signs appeared over
night at major intersections.
Downed power lines that
had blocked roads were cut
away, and crews took down
burned trees with chain saws.
The 29 dead in Northern
California matched the dead
liest 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 peo
ple and destroyed more than
5,000 homes.
US analysts locate secret North Korean missile sites
BY MATTHEW LEE
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON — U.S.
analysts said Monday they
have located 13 secret
North Korean missile
development sites, under
scoring the challenge that
the Trump administration
faces in trying to reach
its promised broad arms
control agreement with
Pyongyang.
The administration has
said it is hopeful about
eventually reaching an
agreement with North
Korea. President Donald
Trump declared after his
historic summit in June
that with President Kim
Jong Un there was “no lon
ger a nuclear threat from
North Korea.” But a report
based on satellite imagery
shows the complexity posed
by an extensive network of
weapons facilities that the
U.S. wants to neutralize.
A report from the Cen
ter for Strategic and
International Studies
has identified 13 secret
facilities used to produce
missiles and related tech
nology. Although the sites
are not launch facilities
and in some cases are rudi
mentary, the authors of the
report say they are hidden
and illustrate the scope of
the North’s weapons pro
gram and the country’s
determination to conceal
its military might.
“The dispersed deploy
ment of these bases and dis
tinctive tactics employed
by ballistic missile units
are combined with decades
of extensive camouflage,
concealment and deception
practices to maximize the
survival of its missile units
from pre-emptive strikes
and during wartime opera
tions,” they said.
The authors say the sites,
which can be used for all
classes of ballistic mis
sile, therefore should be
declared by North Korea
and inspected in any cred
ible, verifiable deal that
addresses Pyongyang’s
most significant threats to
the United States and its
allies.
North Korea analysts not
involved in the report said
the findings were not sur
prising given Pyongyang’s
past activities but were
still cause for concern.
They noted that Kim had
not agreed to halt either
nuclear weapons or missile
development in negotia
tions with Trump or Secre
tary of State Mike Pompeo.
“The fact that North
Korea has continued to
build nuclear weapons
and ballistic missiles in the
midst of high-level diplo
macy with China,
South Korea and
the U.S. should
not come as a sur
prise,” said Abra
ham Denmark,
the Asia program
director at The
Wilson Center.
“Despite all the
summitry, North
Korea is just as dangerous
today as it was a
year ago.”
“Improving rela
tions with Pyong
yang may be a
laudable goal, but
any claim that
the North Korean
nuclear and missile
threats have been
solved is either
wishful thinking or pur
posefully deceptive,” he
said.
“Interesting but unsur
prising report,” said
Kelsey Davenport, direc
tor for nonproliferation
policy at the Arms Control
Association. “Kim Jong
Un only committed volun
tarily to halt long-range
missile tests.”
The report was released
less than a week after North
Korea abruptly called off a
new round of negotiations
with Pompeo that had been
set for Thursday in New
York.
The cancellation, which
the U.S. ascribed to sched
uling issues, followed
threats from North Korean
officials to resume nuclear
and missile testing unless
U.S. sanctions are lifted.
The administration has
said repeatedly that sanc
tions will not be lifted until
a denuclearization agree
ment is fully implemented.
Kim
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