(Image source from: WBNS-10TV Columbus)

The deadliest California wildfire has up till now killed at least 42 and the dead were found in burned-out cars, in the smoke ruins of their homes, or next to their vehicles, seemingly overcome by flames and smoke before they could jump in behind the wheel and escape.

In some cases, there were only charred fragments of bone, so small that coroner's investigators used a wire basket to separate and sort them.

The wildfire has turned Northern California town of Paradise and outlying areas into a hellhole, making it the deathly blaze in state history. The search for bodies continued Monday.

Scores of people were not included in for by the sheriff's reckoning, four days after the fire swept over the town of 27,000 and almost wiped it off the map with flames so ferocious that authorities brought in a mobile DNA lab and forensic anthropologists to assist identify the dead.

Interim, a property owner close to where the blaze began, Betsy Ann Cowley, said she got an email from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. the day before the fire earlier this week telling her that crews required to come onto her property as the utility's power lines were triggering sparks. PG&E had no comment on the email, and state officials said the cause of the inferno was under investigation.

As the hunt for casualties dragged on, friends and kins of the nonexistent called hospitals, shelters, coroner's office, and the office in anticipation of learning what became to their dear ones. Paradise was a well-liked retirement community, and virtually a one-fourth of the population was more than 65.

Megan James, of Newfoundland, Canada, searched through Twitter from another side of the continent for info regarding her uncle and aunt, whose abode in Paradise burnt and whose vehicles were however at that place. James on Monday, asked on the Twitter user to take over the posts, saying she is "so emotionally and mentally exhausted." "I need to sleep and cry," James added. "Just PRAY. Please."

The fire was part of an eruption of wildfires on both extremities of the province. Put together, they were blamed for 44 deaths, comprising two in celebrity-adorned Malibu in Southern California, where firefighters seemed to be gaining ground against approximately 143-square-mile fire that ruined not less than 370 constructions, with hundreds more feared mislaid.

Thousands of people forced to evacuate from their homes by the fire were permitted to coming back, and regime reopened the United States 101, a leading freeway via the fire zone in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Overall, more than 8,000 firefighters across the state were fighting wildfires that ruined over 7,000 structures and burned more than 325 square miles (840 square kilometers), the flames delivering on a dry brush and impelled by blowtorch winds.

-Sowmya Sangam