Paradise (United States) (AFP) – Search teams recovered bodies from the devastation left by California’s most destructive ever wildfire on Sunday, as the statewide death toll rose to at least 27 with high winds hampering the effort to save lives and homes.

Firefighters took advantage of a brief calm overnight to make headway against the multiple blazes, but conditions were hellish on Sunday, with winds forecast to gust as high as 60 miles (100 kilometers) an hour, and humidity low.

In fire zones north and south, acrid smoke blanketed the sky for miles, the sun barely visible. On the ground, cars caught in the blaze were reduced to mangled metal carcasses, while power lines were gnawed by the flames.

The largest inferno — the so-called “Camp Fire” in the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains — has destroyed 6,700 homes, business and other buildings in the town of Paradise, effectively wiping it off the map.

At least 25 people have lost their lives in and around the community of 27,000, according to an official count by authorities.

In Magalia, north of Paradise, workers from a local mortuary team recover a body on Sunday, which was put into a blue bag and loaded into a hearse. (Laurent Banguet, Josh Edelson,AFP)