Chapter 10 - Mass fatalities and Rapid DNA

Abstract

In November of 2018, California experienced the deadliest wildfire in State history. The camp fire destroyed the town of Paradise and a good portion of the surrounding area with a tally of 18,804 residences and commercial buildings lost to the flames. At its peak, the fire consumed over 80 acres per minute and over 150,000 acres in total. Search and recovery efforts resulted in 84 decedents being located on scene and the identification efforts began. The traditional efforts for identification were utilized and included odontology, fingerprints, and hardware, but due to the high degradation of the remains from the intensity of the fire, only 22 of the decedents were able to be identified by these methods. The next step when these methods fail would normally be traditional DNA analysis, which would require months to years to attain identification. Instead, Rapid DNA was utilized in an effort to quickly and accurately identify the remaining decedents. Rapid DNA was a success in this incident with the majority of the 84 decedents identified by Rapid DNA and highlights the fact that Rapid DNA is a viable option for integration in a mass fatality event even with the most degraded remains.