Dozens missing in California wildfires as more evacuees return home

SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Search-and-rescue teams in Northern California will continue to comb through burned homes for dozens of people still missing in the state's deadliest wildfires, which have killed at least 41 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Light winds were expected, a condition that has helped 11,000 firefighters control the flames which in the past week have consumed more than 245,000 acres (86,200 hectares) in the state, an area more than five times the size of Washington, D.C. The affected area includes Napa and Sonoma counties in California's wine country.

"We're in a far better position today than we were several days ago," Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning said in a phone interview early on Tuesday, referring to the Napa Valley.

Tens of thousands of people who fled the flames in Sonoma County and elsewhere have been allowed to return home. About 34,000 were still displaced.