Rain ends in northern California as search for wildfire victims continues

The rains that have drenched northernCalifornia for days were forecast to diminish on Saturday,giving way to clear skies as teams continue their search for theremains of victims of the deadliest wildfire in the state'shistory.

The so-called Camp Fire all but obliterated the town ofParadise, 280 kilometresnortheast of San Francisco, on Nov.8, killing at least 84 people and destroying nearly 14,000homes.

Some 475 people from Paradise and surrounding communitiesremain unaccounted for, according to a list from the ButteCounty Sheriff's Office. Drone footage provided by Paradise to help residents see if their homessurvived showed how the fire leapt from house to house in themountain community of 27,000.

Paradise was a popular destination for retirees, andtwo-thirds of the victims named so far were aged over 65.

The 50 to 80 millimetres of rain that fell in the areaduring the last few days turned ash from the thousands of homesthat were destroyed into slurry, complicating the work offinding bodies reduced to bone fragments.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea has warned that remains ofvictims may be "very small bone fragments," and some may neverbe found.

Firefighting teams had contained 95 percent of the blaze,which torched 62,000 hectares an area five times the size of SanFrancisco, said Andrew Freeborn, a spokesman for the CaliforniaDepartment of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fire.

Thousands of people forced to flee Paradise spentThanksgiving in warehouses in the nearby city of Chico, or withfriends or relatives in nearby towns.