LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One person was found dead in a burned-out house in northern California on Friday after one of the wildfires ravaging the state swept through a woodland community, local police said.
The burned body was found as fire officials moved into thesmall community of Concow three days after fire burned at least50 homes in the rural area.
"We are saddened by the loss of one of our communitymembers but hope that providing this information will encouragepeople in evacuation areas to heed warnings," the Butte CountySheriff's office said in a statement confirming the discoveryof a body.
In Concow and the nearby town of Paradise, about 86 milesnorth of Sacramento, more than 10,000 people remained underevacuation orders on Friday as heavy smoke and thick foghampered efforts to bring the blaze under control.
"The fire is like a sleeping giant. There is no estimatefor its containment," said Yvette Streeter, Paradise townspokeswoman.
"It is a wind-driven fire and it is very dangerous forfirefighters because of the steep terrain. In a lot of areas,the firefighters can't see the fire because of the heavy smokeand clouds," Streeter said.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called up an extra2,000 National Guard troops to support firefighting efforts inthe state where some 300 wildfires are still burning afterlightning storms last month.
In Butte County, home to Concow and Paradise, fires havedestroyed 50 homes and blackened 48,000 acres (19,000hectares). A further 3,800 homes are threatened.
About 20,000 firefighters are battling blazes in Californiathat have so far burned 753,000 acres or more than 1,000 squaremiles, U.S. officials said in a conference call organized bythe Federal Emergency Management Agency.
More than 130 firefighters from Canada, Mexico, Australiaand New Zealand were already in California or on their way.
CONFLICTING ADVISORIES
There were no details on the identity or gender of thevictim in Concow. But resident Tom Tyree told ABC7 televisionnews he believed the person was his neighbor, who may havestayed in his home in the confusion over conflicting evacuationadvisories.
"I believe he didn't feel like (the fire) was that much ofa threat because people had been crying wolf," Tyree said.
Tyree, whose own house was destroyed, said he came near todeath himself. "The heat was very intense. I jumped in thehorse trough outside my neighbor's house. The water was greenbut I saved my life."
In Washington state, a wildfire in a wooded suburb ofSpokane forced 200 people out of their homes and destroyed 13houses, fire officials said on Friday. No injuries werereported.
In central California, fire crews appeared to have gainedthe upper hand on two blazes burning for more than two weeks inthe scenic Big Sur and Santa Barbara areas.
Most mandatory evacuations have been lifted but in thecoastal Big Sur area, 26 homes and 31 other buildings weredestroyed and in Santa Barbara County four outbuildings werelost.
Most of the fires were sparked by mass lightning strikesduring hot, dry weather on June 21. At one point more than1,700 fires were burning in central and northern California,most of them in remote canyons.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles, DaisukeWakabayashi in Seattle and Randall Mikkelsen in Washington;Editing by Philip Barbara)
