Thirteen more bodies have been recovered in California, bringing the death toll in the US state’s deadliest wildfires to 42, officials say.
The remains were found in and around the largely incinerated town of Paradise, in the north of the state.
At least 228 people are missing, as the Camp Fire continues to rage. Nearly 7,200 structures have been destroyed, and another 15,500 are at risk.
The fire has now surpassed the 1933 Griffith Park disaster that killed 31.
In the south, the Woolsey Fire has claimed two lives as it damaged beach resorts, including Malibu.
An estimated 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes across the state.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday evening, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea confirmed the number of dead, and the official number of missing.
Many more people are said to be unaccounted for.
Some bodies were found in gutted cars that were overrun by the fast-moving blaze.
Paradise and its surrounding area bore the brunt of the inferno, which started in nearby forest on Thursday.
“It was very scary,” Paradise Mayor Jody Jones told CNN, recounting her family’s escape from the town.
“It took a long time to get out. There was fire on both sides of the car. You could feel the heat coming in through the car,” she said.
Among the victims were also elderly residents with mobility issues or people who decided to stay despite evacuation orders.
Forensic experts are stepping up their search in the ruins of Paradise, but officials warn that finding the bodies could take weeks.
Two mobile army morgues are being brought in to help to identify the dead.
The fire has burned more than 111,000 acres (45,000 hectares) and is nearly 25% contained, fire officials said.
Heavy Gaza-Israel fire traded overnight
Israel says its fighter jets have hit dozens of Palestinian militant targets overnight in Gaza after militants fired 370 rockets at Israel.
At least three Palestinians died in the strikes on Gaza, while a civilian was killed in a rocket attack in the Israeli town of Ashkelon.
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Both Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, have threatened to escalate their actions.
Violence erupted when a covert Israeli mission got exposed in Gaza on Sunday.
Seven Palestinian militants, including a Hamas military commander, were killed during the incident, including a member of the Israeli undercover unit.
After a brief lull following Sunday night’s violence, a barrage of rockets was launched towards Israel late on Monday. A bus, which had reportedly been carrying troops, was hit by an anti-tank missile in a kibbutz, seriously wounding a male soldier.
Overnight rockets hit border communities, including the city of Ashkelon several miles north of Gaza, where a building was struck, killing a civilian and seriously wounding another.
Israel carried out waves of air strikes against Hamas and the smaller Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said more than 100 military targets were hit, including “a unique vessel” belonging to Hamas in a harbour in southern Gaza.
Palestinian officials said at least three people, two of them militants, were killed and another died after being injured earlier.
The building housing Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV was hit and destroyed after being evacuated, disrupting broadcasts. Israel said the outlet “contributes to Hamas’s military actions”.
It is one of the most serious rounds of fighting since Israel and Hamas fought a war in 2014.
Israel has warned it is prepared to “dial up its response” to Hamas, while Hamas’s military wing said it was ready to “expand the circle of fire” against Israel.
UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said efforts were being made with Egypt to pull Gaza “back from the brink”.
“The escalation in the past 24hrs is EXTREMELY dangerous,” he tweeted on Monday night.
Palestinians said they discovered an undercover Israeli unit in a civilian car about 3km (2 miles) inside the Gaza Strip late on Sunday.
A firefight ensued in which the Hamas commander was killed. Israel launched air strikes and opened fire with tanks on the area, witnesses said. Six other militants were killed as well as one of the Israeli special forces soldiers.
The incident is reported to have happened east of Khan Younis, in the south of the territory.
