THE LATEST: Seven More Fatalities Raises Death Toll To 63
PARADISE (CBS13/AP) - The latest on the fight against the Camp Fire in Butte County:
7:15 p.m.
Authorities say that 631 people are still unaccounted for after last week's deadly wildfire in Northern California.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said he believes there are people on the list who fled the blaze and don't realize they were reported missing. He said authorities were making the list public so people could see if they're on it, and let authorities know they are safe.
Honea announced the increased count at a news conference Thursday, after having said a day earlier that 130 people were unaccounted for.
He said the first figure was a partial count, and after authorities went back through all 911 calls and other reports of missing persons from the past week they came up with the new number.
The Nov. 8 fire killed 63 people, destroyed 9,700 homes and displaced 52,000 people in the town of Paradise and nearby towns.
6:40 p.m.
Authorities have reported seven more fatalities from a blaze in Northern California, bringing the total number of fatalities so far to 63 in the deadliest wildfire in state history.
The announcement came Thursday as authorities continued to search the devastated town of Paradise for human remains.
More than 5,000 fire personnel were battling the blaze that started a week ago and has displaced 52,000 people.
Authorities also raised the number of homes destroyed by the wildfire to 9,700. The total number of buildings destroyed has ground to 11,862.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said 631 people remain missing. The missing person list has grown by 500 since Wednesday.
___
5:40 p.m.
San Francisco's iconic open-air cable cars have been pulled off the streets because of choking air wafting in from a wildfire in Northern California.
The city's transportation agency said Thursday that because of the poor air quality, "all cable cars will be pulling back into the cable car barn."
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency made the announcement on Twitter, saying buses would provide service for the remainder of the day.
The deadly wildfire started a week ago in the Northern California town of Paradise that's about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of San Francisco. It has sent smoke across the region.
Schools in San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland and elsewhere have announced they will be closed Friday because of the poor air quality.
4:30 p.m.
An informal camp for wildfire refugees in a Walmart parking lot in Northern California is going to be closing.
Volunteers who helped bring in free food and clothing said Thursday they are phasing out amenities.
More than 75 tents have popped up at the Chico store to house people evacuated from the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise and surrounding area.
RELATED: CalOES Sets Up Massive Operation To Provide Camp Fire Disaster Relief
Volunteers say they want people to go to shelters, so clothing, food and toilets will be removed by Sunday.
Betsy Totten, a Chico city spokeswoman, said it's unclear what will be done if people don't leave, but officials don't plan to kick them out.
The site has been popular with evacuees who can't find a hotel and can't stay at shelters because they have pets.
___
4 p.m.
Most schools in San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland and Folsom will be closed Friday as a deadly wildfire in Northern California send smoke into the Bay Area.
School districts announced the closures Thursday as the region experienced some of the worst air quality since the fire started a week ago about 180 miles north of San Francisco.
READ: Full List: Smoky Air Prompts Several Colleges And School Districts To Close
An Environmental Protection Agency website says the air quality in Sacramento is "hazardous" Thursday and San Francisco's is "very unhealthy." Many people walking around the cities wore face masks.
Several Northern California universities had announced closures earlier Thursday.
The wildfire that started a week ago has killed dozens of people and charred nearly 220 square miles (570 square kilometers).
___
3:50 p.m.
Some evacuation orders and warnings were lifted in the Camp Fire area Thursday.
The area of Little Chico Creek has been reduced from an evacuation order to an evacuation warning. The area north of Ten Mile House Road is open to Forest Ranch Road is open. Doe Mill Road south at Village Drive is closed. Santos Ranch Road, Wilder Drive, and Autumn Lane will remain closed.
In the Humbug Zone, the evacuation order has been lifted. Doe Mill Road is open east to Powellton Road but will remain closed at Powellton Road.
And the evacuation warning was lifted in the Forest Ranch Zone. Forest Ranch Road north to Highway 36 is open.
___
3 p.m.
A utility facing severe financial pressure amid speculation that its equipment may have sparked a deadly California wildfire asked U.S. energy regulators last month for permission to raise its customers' monthly bills.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October that it wants the increase to harden its system against wildfires and deliver a sizable increase in profits to shareholders.
The company says it faces a higher wildfire risk than other utilities and would have trouble attracting investors without a higher profit.
The San Francisco-based utility made the request a month before the Camp Fire broke out Nov. 8 in Northern California and became the nation's deadliest wildfire in 100 years.
No cause has been determined, but PG&E reported an outage around when and where the fire ignited.
----
2:15 p.m.
The Butte County Public Health Department has released numbers on the amount of people staying at Camp Fire evacuation centers suffering from Norovirus.
A total of 41 people are experiencing symptoms of Norovirus or gastrointestinal illness. Health officials say the number of sick people is increasing each day.
Four evacuation centers are seeing outbreaks: At the Neighborhood Church, 21 of the 179 evacuees are ill; at Oroville Nazarene Church, 10 of 352 are ill; at the Butte County Fairgrounds, 9 of 142 are sick; and at the East Avenue Church, 1 of 200 is sick.
----
1:35 p.m.
Authorities are investigating after an officer-involved shooter incident that happened in a Camp Fire evacuation zone late Thursday morning.
According to the Butte County Sheriff's Office, the incident happened just after 11 a.m., but the exact location where it happened and what led up to the shooting has not been disclosed.
Deputies say rumors that the incident happened at an evacuation center are false.
No other information about the incident – including if anyone was injured – has been released at this point in the investigation.
----
12:29 p.m.
President Donald Trump will travel to California on Saturday to meet with victims of the deadly wildfires that have scorched the state.
The White House announced Thursday that it is still arranging details of his trip to California, but that visit people who have been impacted by the fires.
The fires in Northern and Southern California started last week and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people and the destruction of thousands of homes.
At least 56 people were killed in and nearby the Northern California town of Paradise, which was leveled by the fire.
Two people were killed by the Southern California fire and a third death in that fire zone is under investigation as possibly linked to the fire.
----
11:10 a.m.
Classes have been canceled for tens of thousands Northern California university students as smoke from a deadly wildfire continues to drift south, choking the air in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Air quality officials said Thursday the region will experience some of the worst air quality in the eight days since the fire about 90 miles (130 kilometers) north of Sacramento started last week, destroying the town of Paradise.
The wildfire has charred nearly 220-square-mile (570-square-kilometer) since Nov. 8 and is 40 percent contained.
Officials from six Northern California universities say classes are canceled Thursday. Some of the colleges are closing all of their buildings. Cal Estate East Bay says its libraries, health centers and dining halls will remaineopen.
Bay Area Air District executive officer Jack Broadbent says in a statement that smoke from the fire continues to blanket all nine counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
----
7:25 a.m.
The Camp Fire continues to grow, but so does containment of the flames.
Thursday, Cal Fire's latest numbers showed the Camp Fire has burned 140,000 acres. Containment is now up to 40 percent, up 5 percent from Wednesday.
Wednesday night, authorities reported eight more confirmed fatalities, bringing the total death toll so far to 56.
A list of more than 100 people still missing after the fire was released by the Butte County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday. Sheriff's officials acknowledged that the list was incomplete.
Smoky air across the region has prompted many, but not all, schools to cancel classes on Thursday.
