Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea says that with a search of the area ravaged by the Camp Fire complete and with no new human remains discovered over the last several days, he’s hopeful that all victims of the Nov. 8 catastrophe have been found.
Honea said in a briefing in Chico on Wednesday night that search and recovery teams had completed a sweep of 18,000 structures in Paradise and the nearby communities of Magalia and Concow. That effort, which Honea said involved about 10,000 personnel, has recovered the remains of 88 people who perished in the fast-moving blaze.
Those involved in the search came from Indiana, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and 55 of California’s 58 counties. They included specialized search teams, coroners’ investigators, forensic anthropologists and other experts as well as National Guard personnel.
Honea noted the death toll has not risen for the last three days.
“What’s significant about that to me is that it gives me a high degree of confidence in the due diligence performed by these search teams,” he said. “All of those locations where we had information to believe that human remains were located have been searched. In addition to that, all locations where we felt there was a higher probability of human remains being have been searched. And finally, all structures where there is the possibility of human remains being have been searched.”
Honea said that in coming days, with residents of many areas in the disaster zone given clearance to return to their properties in the coming days, it’s possible more victims will be discovered.
“My sincere hope is that no additional human remains will be located,” Honea said. But he added that if people returning to their properties come across anything they believe to be human remains — for instance, bones or bone fragments — they should call the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at (530) 538-7322 to investigate.
“The fact there may still be remains that are identifiable by subject-matter experts gives me good hope that if there are remains out there, we will be able to identify those individuals and return the remains to the next of kin,” Honea said.
The sheriff said the number of those unaccounted for after the fire stands at 196 — an increase of 38 from earlier in the week. Honea said the list grew because detectives had been working through a backlog of earlier missing-persons reports — a process that’s now complete. He said his office so far has accounted for 2,913 people whose whereabouts were initially unknown after the fires.
Honea also announced the names of five more people who died in the fire: Julian Binstock, Dennis Hanko, Jennifer Hayes and Donna Ware, all of Paradise, and John Sedwick of Magalia.
The Sheriff’s Office has been releasing names as victims’ next of kin are notified. Below is a list including all 33 names released through Thursday morning. The list also includes the names of five people whose deaths have been confirmed by relatives in media accounts.
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