CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE: ‘Devil winds’ expected to cause more havoc

The death toll arising from the raging wildfire which burnt out of control on a mountain town in California has risen to 25 from 9 rescue officials have revealed.

Officials also fear that more severe hot and dry “devil winds’ were expected in the north, fanning the flames of more wild fires.

“This is getting bad,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard, with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre in College Park Maryland.

“We’ll get sustained winds of up to 40 mph and gusts between 60 mph and 70 mph,” he said early Sunday of the Santa Ana “devil wind” hitting the Los Angeles area where the Woolsey Fire has been burning since Thursday in the tinder-dry canyon of Ventura County and claimed at least 2 lives.

Read also: Death toll rises to 7 as tropical storm Florence is predicted to batter eastern US states for days

Rescue operatives say the bodies of the nine victims were found in and around the Northern California town of Paradise, where more than 6,700 homes and businesses were burned down by the Camp Fire.

Scores of residents have been forced to flee the upscale beach community of Malibu in the face of the monster fire storm.

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