48 people now confirmed dead in Camp Fire

UPDATE (6:25 p.m.) – The Camp Fire in Butte County has burned 130,00 acres and is 35 percent contained as of Tuesday evening.

The death toll has increased to 48 after Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea says six more bodies were found Tuesday in Paradise.

Fire officials say a total of 8,817 structures have been destroyed by the fire. At least 7,600 of them are single-family homes.

Approximately 52,000 people remain under evacuation orders.

More than 5,615 firefighters are battling the blaze.

A fire analyst who spoke at a Tuesday evening press conference said the area is primed for continued fire growth, as it’s been 212 days since the area has had 1/2 inch of rain and the brush is drier than it’s ever been.

Sheriff Honea added that there have been six arrests in the past few days of people who have been found in areas that are under evacuation orders and are suspected of possible looting.

UPDATE (3:45 p.m.) – People are coming to shelters in Northern California in search of loved ones and neighbors who are missing after a deadly fire tore through the town of Paradise.

Greg Gibson searched a shelter in Chico on Tuesday for information about his missing neighbors. He doesn’t know if they tried to leave or not but says the fire exploded so quickly that if they hesitated, they would have had trouble.

It’s not clear how many people are unaccounted for in the fire that ignited last week. At least 42 people are dead.

Harold Taylor says he barely made it out of his house alive Thursday morning. The 72-year-old Vietnam veteran who walks with a cane says he tried to convince his neighbor to get in his car with him, but the neighbor declined. He doesn’t know what happened to his friend.

UPDATE (12:45 p.m.) – A fire official says crews have made “a lot of progress” in preventing a deadly Northern California from reaching Oroville, a town of 19,000 people.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection operations chief Josh Bischof said Tuesday that firefighters on foot and in bulldozers are working south of the town of Paradise. It was leveled by the blaze that started last Thursday.

Officials had worried strong winds could spread the wildfire toward Oroville and the Oroville Dam, the nation’s tallest. Firefighters on Monday cleared brush and sprayed water on vegetation near the dam.

Bischof says “we’re feeling a lot better about this area.”

More than 5,000 firefighters are battling the fire that killed at least 42 people in Paradise and nearby communities.

UPDATE (11:55 a.m.) – Authorities have identified only a fraction of the dozens of victims of a wildfire that has decimated a Northern California town.

Jesus Fernandez, a 48-year-old Concow resident nicknamed “Zeus,” and his beloved dog “King” had been missing since the fire broke out Thursday.

Family friend Myrna Pascua told The Sacramento Bee that Fernandez’s son was informed Monday that his father was found pinned between two cars.

The wildfire that largely wiped out the town of Paradise has left at least 42 dead and destroyed thousands of homes and other buildings.

(7:37 a.m.) – The Camp Fire in Northern California has now burned 125,000 acres and is 30 percent contained.

Fire officials released the latest numbers Tuesday morning.

42 people are confirmed dead, and it is unclear the exact amount of people who remain missing. More than a dozen coroner and search and recovery teams continue to look for human remains.

The town of Paradise is reported to be completely destroyed by the Camp Fire, which broke out in Butte County Thursday morning.

More than 6,500 homes have been destroyed and over 15,000 remain threatened by the fire that continues to grow.

Evacuations remain in place in the area.

The cause is under investigation.