MIDDLETOWN, Calif.—The death toll is now five from a pair of the most destructive wildfires in recent years in California.
The two major blazes, which together have destroyed more than 800 homes, have been significantly diminished in cooler, wetter weather, and firefighters were working to extend fire lines before an expected hot weekend arrives.
Two more bodies were found in the burned ruins of homes, authorities said Thursday. They were presumed to be Bruce Beven Burns and former San Jose Mercury News police reporter Leonard Neft, though official identifications have yet to be made, the Lake County Sheriff’s Department said.
Shirley Burns said her 65-year-old brother-in-law might have been sleeping in his trailer and didn’t realize the fire was speeding toward him on Saturday.
“It came in very fast, it was a monster,” she said from her home in Lodi.
She recalled Burns as a laid-back guy who sold items at a Clear Lake flea market and lived in a trailer at the family’s metal recycling yard.
“He reminded me of a big Teddy bear,” Shirley Burns said. “He was a real kind and gentle person. He had a beard and looked like a mountain man.”
On Sunday another woman, 72-year-old Barbara McWilliams, was found dead in the same area near Middletown about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
