Dwindling list of missing people brings relief to burn area

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The search for people unaccounted for after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in at least a century is winding down in Northern California, with just 11 names left on a fluctuating list that once approached 1,300 and prompted fears that hundreds had died in the flames.

The declining number released late Monday came as a relief in the Paradise area as it reels from the wildfire that killed at least 85 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes.

Families, friends and even long-ago acquaintances have been peppering social media with pleas for help finding people. Sometimes they had no more than a first name to work with.

Authorities now say they have located more than 3,100 people who had been reported as unreachable at some point during the catastrophe.

"I think that's a pretty remarkable number at this point," Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said.

He also has revised the death toll down to 85 from 88, saying medical examiners determined several bags of human remains were duplicates.