MIDDLETOWN, Calif.—Two bodies were found at the site of a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, while dogs were used Wednesday to search for a former police reporter and several other people who authorities fear were killed in a separate, fast-moving blaze in Northern California.
Both bodies were found inside burned-out homes Tuesday, Calaveras County coroner Kevin Raggio said.
One of the victims was identified as Mark McCloud, 65, who was found inside his residence in the Mountain Ranch area. Raggio wouldn’t release the name of the second victim, also found in Mountain Ranch, because the family has not been notified.
He said both were found in an area where mandatory evacuations were ordered after the fire burning 60 miles southeast of Sacrament exploded in size over the weekend.
The deaths came in addition to an elderly, disabled woman whose body was found Sunday in the ruins of her Lake County home about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
Authorities were searching nearby for a 69-year-old Leonard Neft, who was reported missing by his family. His burned-out car was discovered on a route he would have used to escape.
“We have reports of several others that may have perished in the fire,” Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin said during a tour of the disaster zone with state emergency officials.
Neft, who worked for the San Jose Mercury News, last spoke with his family Saturday.
His daughter Joselyn Neft said his wife, Adela Neft, repeatedly called him then to tell him to leave the house, but he told her he didn’t think the fire was coming toward him.
His house was in the same area where Barbara McWilliams, 72, was found dead. She told her caretaker she didn’t want to leave her home near Middletown and would be fine.
Martin was among the state and local officials who traveled in a convoy of government SUVs to inspect the still-smoldering ruins in the devastated Lake County region.
Smoking power lines dangled overhead in one area as officials looked over the hardest-hit places.
