Fires raging across California have caused more than $1bn in property damage and left five people dead, police have said. The death toll rose to five after the discovery of two burned bodies in a destroyed home in the town of Poway.
Meanwhile, firefighters said on Wednesday that a break in the weather had given them a chance to go on the offensive. Around 1,700 buildings have been destroyed in the 18 fires that have erupted since Sunday. The fires have forced an estimated 500,000 people to flee their homes and scorched 172,000 hectares of countryside stretching from Malibu to beyond the Mexican border. |