Sheriff: Death Toll Rises to 56 in Northern California Wildfire

(AP) — Authorities have reported eight more fatalities from a blaze in Northern California, bringing the total death toll so far to 56 in the deadliest wildfire in state history.

The sheriff says 130 people are still on missing list.

Wildfire experts say the Northern California wildfire is the deadliest in a century.

California officials say the fire burning in a rural area far north of San Francisco killed more people than any other blaze in the state’s recorded history.

The U.S. government doesn’t closely track civilian casualties, and records from long ago are incomplete.

Stephen Pyne, an Arizona State University professor and fire historian, said Wednesday the California fire certainly is the deadliest since 1918, when a wildfire in northern Minnesota killed an estimated 1,000 people.

That fire prompted the federal government to start developing firefighting practices and policies.