I lived in Southern California from 1978 to 1991,  For seven years, I lived in beautiful Malibu which has virtually been destroyed by the Woolsley fire.  One of my very best friends lost his house in one of the canyons.  He had lived there 42 years.  Over the years, I watched him build a guesthouse, expand the main house, build a recording studio, then a television production studio. I saw how he has lovingly created gardens and steps in the mountainside to access all these structures from the main house. Now it is all gone. Ashes and charred remains.  He is planning on rebuilding.  That’s how the people who live in those mountains are made. They don’t quit.

A burned neighborhood in Paradise, California on November 15, 2018.

On Friday, deputies found eight more bodies Friday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 71 while the list of unaccounted for people is more than 1,000 in Northern California alone.   The number of people unaccounted for grew from 631 on Thursday night to more than 1,000 on Friday, but Sheriff Kory Honea said the list was dynamic and could easily contain duplicate names and unreliable spellings of names. He said the roster probably includes some who fled the blaze and do not realize they’ve been reported missing.

“We are still receiving calls, we’re still reviewing emails,” Honea said Friday. Some on the list have been confirmed as dead by family and friends on social media. Others have been located and are safe, but authorities haven’t gotten around to marking them as found.

The Camp Fire ignited Nov. 8 near Pulga, a tiny community in Butte County nestled in the Plumas National Forest. The blaze exploded as strong winds fanned the flames southwest, enveloping the town of Paradise, a bucolic community of 27,000 people in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Homes leveled by the Camp Fire line a development on Edgewood Lane in Paradise, Calif., Nov. 12, 2018. 

The fire has virtually decimated the entire town.  Melissa Schuster, a Paradise town council member, said her house was among those leveled by the Camp Fire.  “Our entire five-member council is homeless,” Schuster said in a Nov. 13 interview on ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast. “All of our houses have been destroyed.”

Thom Porter, chief of strategic planning for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the body count is expected to climb higher as search crews continue sifting through the destruction. “It is by far the most deadly single fire in California history and it’s going to get worse, unfortunately,” Porter said of the Camp Fire.

Many of the deaths have taken place in Paradise. “The entire community of Paradise is a toxic wasteland right now,” Schuster said, holding back tears. “In addition to that, and this is the hardest part for me to even talk about, the number of fatalities is [among] things that we don’t know at this moment and that’s something that has to be determined before people can move back in.”

President Donald Trump greets California Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom, left, as he arrives at Beale Air Force Base in California, Nov. 17, 2018.

The Camp Fire, which has scorched a total of 149,000 acres in Butte County, was 55 percent contained Saturday evening as thousands of exhausted firefighters work around the clock to quell the inferno, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Two prison inmate firefighters were among a total of three firefighters who have been injured while battling the Camp Fire, officials told ABC News.

While razing Paradies, the fire heavily damaged the outlying communities of Magalia and Concow on Nov. 8, destroying 9,700 houses and 144 apartment buildings, authorities said. Firefighters were gaining ground against the blaze, which blackened 222 square miles (575 square kilometers). It was 45 percent contained and posed no immediate threat to populated areas. Crews managed to stop it from spreading toward Oroville, population 19,000.

President Donald Trump visited the area on Saturday.  In an interview taped Friday and scheduled for broadcast on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump said he was surprised to see images of firefighters removing dried brush near a fire, adding, “This should have been all raked out.“  The president was asked if he thought climate change contributed to the fires, he said, “Maybe it contributes a little bit. The big problem we have is management.“

Nick Shawkey, a captain with the state fire agency, said the president’s tweet blaming poor forest management was based on a “misunderstanding.” The federal government manages 46 percent of land in California.  “The thing he’s tweeting about is his property,” Shawkey said.

Residences leveled by the wildfire line a neighborhood in Paradise, Calif., 

“Hopefully this is going to be the last one of these because it was a really, really bad one,” Trump said while standing in a charred mobile home park.

Democrats Gov. Jerry Brown and governor-elect Gavin Newsom said they welcomed the president’s visit and “now is a time to pull together for the people of California.” Brown and Newsom have been vocal critics of Trump.

The president later visited Malibu to tour devastation from the Woolsey Fire. 

More than 450 searchers continued looking for human remains in the ashes. Around 52,000 people have been driven out and have gone to shelters, motels and the homes of friends and relatives. With winter coming on, many are seeking answers on what assistance will be provided.

In Southern California , meanwhile, more residents were being allowed back in their homes near Los Angeles after the Woosley fire torched an area the size of Denver and destroyed more than 600 homes and other structures. The blaze was 69 percent contained, authorities said. At least three deaths were reported. Schools across a large swath of the state were closed because of smoke, and San Francisco’s world-famous open-air cable cars were pulled off the streets.

Firefighters knock down flames in the Point Dume neighborhood of Malibu, Calif., on Nov. 10, 2018, after the Woolsey Fire tore through the neighborhood overnight. 

The Woolsey Fire is 78% contained as of Saturday morning and has killed at least three people, according to CBS. The Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management said several communities will have to be “completely rebuilt.”

As of Friday, 47,200 of the 52,000 total people evacuated were still displaced, per NBC News. Companies such as Airbnb and several non-profit organizations have been tirelessly coordinating relief efforts for those displaced, and firefighters have been working to contain the fires.

The Woolsey Fire also ignited Nov. 8 near the city of Simi Valley in Ventura County and rapidly spread south to Los Angeles County. The wind-driven flames jumped the 101 Freeway before sweeping through the celebrity enclaves of Malibu and Calabasas.  The entire city of Malibu and a sprawling naval base near the seaside city of Oxnard were among the areas under mandatory evacuation orders, as officials warned the blaze could potentially spread all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Evacuation orders have since been lifted for some areas, including parts of Malibu, as firefighters successfully stretch containment levels.

The Santa Monica Mountains are seen left blackened by the Woolsey Fire near Malibu, Calif., Nov. 14, 2018. 

The Woolsey Fire, which has torched a total of 96,949 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, was up to 88 percent containment by Saturday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.  In all, 1,130 structures have been destroyed and another 300 have been damaged, as of Sunday morning.

The blaze burned down a portion of Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills known as “Western Town,” where hundreds of movies and television shows, including HBO’s “Westworld,” have been filmed, dating back to the 1920s. The Woolsey Fire has been blamed for the deaths of at least three people, and three firefighters sustained injuries while battling the flames, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In the last month alone, California firefighters have put out more than 500 fires, reports CNN. The total number of people who remain missing spiked to nearly 1,300 late Saturday.  The two monstrous blazes, which both ignited last week, have claimed a total of 79 lives while laying waste to a total area of nearly 400 square miles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Officials said that 63 of the remains have been positively identified so far.

The vast majority of the deaths — 76 total — were due to the Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County, making it the deadliest and most destructive wildland fire in the state’s history. The number of people missing or unaccounted for in Butte County grew to 1,011 by Friday, and 1,276 by late Saturday, though those figures may continue to fluctuate as authorities track down the names on the list, according to Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea. 

Meanwhile, the smoke from the flames has descended across the Golden State and choked the air in major cities, including San Francisco. Officials have advised residents in the affected areas to remain indoors and wear a protective mask outside.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for California through Sunday as humidity drops and wind gusts could get up to 40 mph. in the Camp Fire zone.

Smoke from the Camp Fire spreading over Northern California towards the Pacific Ocean, Nov. 16, 2018. 

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has declared a public health emergency in California, where the wildfires have forced the evacuation of at least two hospitals and eight other health facilities.

“We are working closely with state health authorities and monitoring the needs of healthcare facilities to provide whatever they may need to save lives and protect health,” Azar said in a statement Wednesday. “This declaration will help ensure that Americans who are threatened by these dangerous wildfires and who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program have continuous access to the care they need.”

Smoke advisories have been issued for the affected region amid concerns that smoke from the fires could present a “significant health threat” for people with asthma and other lung conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Residents have been urged to stay indoors as much as possible and to wear a properly fitting mask when venturing outside.

Some people would say people that buy expensive homes in such places are crazy because there is such risk.  Others would say, what is the point of life if you can’t enjoy it even if it means a little risk.  I think of the story of the man who seeing that the second world war about to happen moved his entire family to a remote island where he was sure they would be safe.  The name of the island was Guam.