Camp Fire: Containment increases to 80 percent; rain complicates searches

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Wednesday, November 21, 2018
A man tends to his belongings at an evacuee encampment at a Walmart parking lot in Chico, California on November 19, 2018.
creativeContent-Josh Edelson for the Washington Post

PARADISE, Calif. -- Light rain is falling in some areas of Northern California, where the deadly Camp Fire has been burning for nearly two weeks.

Moderate rain is expected later Wednesday in the Paradise burn area, where a wildfire killed at least 81 people and destroyed more than 13,000 homes.

The 153,336-acre Camp Fire burning across Butte County is now 80 percent contained.

Rain forecast through the Thanksgiving weekend could aid crews fighting wildfires while complicating efforts to recover human remains.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch, saying brief periods of heavy rain could unleash mudslides.

Rain is also expected along the central coast and in Southern California later in the day.