The death toll in Northern California has risen to 42, as firefighters continue to battle the so-called Camp Fire, while the state-wide death toll has reached 44.
Hundreds of people also remain unaccounted for, many in the town of Paradise, which was almost completely destroyed four days ago.
Victims have been found in burned-out cars, in the smouldering ruins of their homes, and next to their vehicles, apparently overcome by smoke and flames before they could escape.
In some cases, all that remains is charred fragments of bone and investigators have been using wire baskets to sift and sort them.
As the search for victims continues, friends and relatives of the missing have been calling hospitals, police, shelters and the coroner’s office in the hope 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 while Darlina Duarte was desperate for information about her half-brother, a diabetic who was largely housebound because he had lost his legs.
Barbara 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,” Hall said, adding that the couple had only a landline and calls were not going through to it.
The blaze is one of numerous fires currently burning in California.
In Malibu, firefighters appear to be gaining ground against a roughly 143 square mile blaze that has 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 overnight, and authorities reopened US 101, a major highway 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.
In Northern California, fire crews still fighting the blaze that obliterated Paradise contended with wind gusts of up to 40mph overnight. The fire had grown to 177 square miles and was 25% contained, authorities said. Winds were expected to weaken on Monday night.