CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE: ‘Devil winds’ raise death toll to 31

As earlier feared by officials, the severe hot and dry “devil winds’ which are fanning the flames of more inferno has raised the death toll from wildfires raging in California.

Officials say the death toll has risen from 25 to 31 after six more people were found killed in what was poised to become the deadliest wildfire in state history.

“We are entering a new normal,” said Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen, noting at a news conference that California’s fires in 2018 grow far more quickly than they did even 10 years ago.

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

“The rate of spread is exponentially more than it used to be,” he said.

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

Reports say the inferno was caused by a so-called Camp Fire on a mountain town in California with looting reported in the southern fire area and arrests were made, according to police.

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