By Canadian Press

Catastrophic Northern California fire is finally contained

Nov 25, 2018 | 3:10 PM

LOS ANGELES — A massive wildfire that killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes in Northern California has been fully contained after burning for more than two weeks, authorities said Sunday.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the Camp fire had been surrounded by firefighters following several days of rain in and around the devastated town of Paradise.

The nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century killed at least 85 people, and 249 are on a list of those unaccounted for. The number of missing dropped in recent days as officials confirmed that more people were alive.

Crews continued sifting through debris and ash for human remains.

“It’s certainly good to be done with the containment of this fire, even though there’s still a lot of work to be done moving forward,” fire spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said.

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The blaze began on Nov. 8 in the parched Sierra Nevada foothills and quickly spread across 240 square miles (620 square kilometres), destroying most of Paradise in a day.

Nearly 19,000 buildings, most of them homes, are gone.

The firefight got a boost last week from the first significant winter storm to hit California. It dropped an estimated 7 inches (18 centimetres) of rain over the burn area during a three-day period without causing significant mudslides, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley of the National Weather Service.

In Southern California, more residents returned to areas evacuated in a destructive fire as crews repaired power, telephone and gas utilities.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said they were in the last phase of repopulating Malibu and unincorporated areas of the county. At the height of the fire, 250,000 fled their homes. The fire was fully contained Nov. 21 after burning for two weeks.

Three people died, and 1,643 buildings, most of them homes, were destroyed, officials said.

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Associated Press journalists Kathleen Ronayne in Paradise, California, and Daisy Nguyen in San Francisco contributed.

Christopher Weber, The Associated Press