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REUTERS
SANTA ROSA, California
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.
Lighter 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, including Napa and Sonoma counties in wine country.
"We're in a far better position today than we were several days ago," Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning told Reuters 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, with about 34,000 still displaced.
More evacuees hoped to return home on Tuesday, though officials said the death toll may rise, as 88 people remained unaccounted for in Sonoma County alone.
The Tubbs fire around Calistoga was 82 percent contained and the Atlas fire to the southeast was 77 percent contained on Tuesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), the state's firefighting agency.
The Nuns Fire, located in Sonoma County and now the state's largest fire, was 68 percent contained.
Fire officials, employing more than 960 fire engines, 30 air tankers and 73 helicopters, hoped the blazes would be fully contained by Friday. Precipitation is also expected to arrive later in the week, bringing relief from dry conditions.
Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, which had to evacuate last week, reopened on Tuesday morning, the Sonoma Sheriff's Department said.
