Firefighters continued to make progress Sunday against the deadly wildfires ravaging neighborhoods up and down California, boosting containment as more residents were allowed to return home.
A red flag warning remained in effect in parts of Northern California, where the Camp fire in Butte County has burned 149,500 acres, killed at least 76 people and destroyed 12,786 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The death toll has risen every day as search crews continued to sift through the rubble, while the list of people unaccounted for reached 1,276 Saturday night. Officials said the number is far from precise and could include duplicates and the names of people who have not checked in with relatives or authorities.
By Sunday morning, the fire was 60 percent contained. But forecasters expected that gusty winds would bring in critical fire weather conditions across portions of the western slopes of the northern Sierra. Officials said smoke from the fire would continue to bring poor air quality across the region through Tuesday.
In Southern California, the Woolsey fire has charred 96,949 acres and destroyed about 1,130 structures. By Sunday morning, it was 88 percent contained and Cal Fire said it expects full containment by Thursday.
Some people couldn't wait any longer to return home. Around noon Sunday, Valerie and Edward Nalbentian walked north along the shoulder of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, heading to a home they said they knew had burned down.
"We haven't seen it yet," Valerie said. "But we've seen plenty of pictures."
They had only had the Point Dume house for a year and a half, she said. Since the fire, the Nalbentians were preoccupied by trying to find somewhere to rent. In just a few days, she said, someone raised the rent on a place she was considering $2,000 a month.
"People are renting places without even looking at them because there's such a shortage," she said.
Farther south, Mimi Goldfinger gazed up at the scarred hillside at the intersection of Latigo Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway, cradling a fluffy white dog in her arms. Before, she said, "it was all lush."
She and her husband Morris were waiting to return to their home in a gated community and find out whether it was still standing.
From their hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, they had heard bits and pieces from the utility workers who were staying at the hotel _ and from the security company their community had hired to patrol the area. They knew that other homes above and below had been destroyed, but "I don't know about our house," Mimi said.
A chance of rain later this week has crews bracing for possible mudslides in burn scars of both fires.
Butte County could get four to five inches of rain from Tuesday night through the weekend, with the heaviest rain Thursday night, said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"That's going to be spread out over a period of days ... not coming down all at once," he said.
That may be a good sign. Typically, debris flows are expected when rain falls at half an inch an hour or more, said David Gomberg of the weather service.
In Southern California, there's about a 50 percent chance of rain over the areas charred by the Woolsey fire as soon as Wednesday, Gomberg said. Forecasters said the area could get up to three-quarters of an inch of rain.
"It doesn't look like a real heavy rain producer," he said.
Even so, forecasters warned of potential rock slides and debris flows across roadways below fire-ravaged slopes.
