Hundreds still missing as California's deadliest wildfire is finally tamed

The deadliest and most destructive fire in California's history was finally brought totally under control by firefighters, more than two weeks after it erupted, authorities said on Sunday.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the devastating blaze, known as Camp Fire, had been surrounded by firefighters following several days of rain.

The nation's deadliest wildfire in a century killed at least 85 people, and 249 are on a list of people still unaccounted for.

The number of missing dropped in recent days as officials confirmed that more people were alive.

Only 54 of the fatalities have been identified, according to the local sheriff's office in Butte County, a rural area north of the state capital Sacramento.

A total of 153,336 acres were affected by the fire, with nearly 14,000 homes and hundreds of other structures destroyed.

Heavy downfalls that have soaked the fire zone in the past days helped douse the remaining flames, but also made it more difficult for crews searching for bodies.

Fire prevention

While Brown has warned that mega fires such as those in Butte and Malibu will cease to be "abnormal" events, the state has allocated about $1 billion over the next five years for fire prevention.

Much of the cash will go on education and suppression activities such as clearing grasses and other vegetation, according to officials.

But many experts are calling for more restrictions on housing being built in forests as a means of eliminating danger before the blazes even break out.

"I think people are thinking about if there is a way we can design the new Paradise that can look like more of a European village or a ski town, and not have houses out in the forests," Bill Stewart, co-director of the Center for Forestry at the University of California, Berkeley told AFP.

A recent study found that one third of all US houses now are located in what researchers refer to as the wildland-urban interface, where houses and forest vegetation intermingle.

While Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about global warming, a new report by his administration warned Friday that climate change will cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars annually by century's end unless drastic action is taken to cut carbon emissions

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