The 2018 California Wildfires: Integration of Rapid DNA to Dramatically Accelerate Victim Identification.

ABSTRACT: In November 2018, Butte County, California, was decimated by the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in state history. Over 150,000 acres were destroyed, and at its peak, the fire consumed eighty acres per minute. The speed and intensity of the oncoming flames killed scores of people, and weeks before the fire was contained, first responders began searching through the rubble of 18,804 residences and commercial buildings. As with most mass disasters, conventional identification modalities (e.g., fingerprints, odontology, hardware) were utilized to identify victims. The intensity and duration of the fire severely degraded most of the remains, and these approaches were useful in only 22 of 84 cases. In the past, the remaining cases would have been subjected to conventional DNA analysis, which

SUBMITTER: Gin K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7318200 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature