Smoke City: Breathing in a day of San Francisco air is like smoking 11 CIGARETTES as the city chokes under wildfire air pollution which has closed schools and businesses and is the worst ever recorded.

Schools and tourist attractions across the San Francisco Bay Area were shut Friday and residents were urged to stay indoors as smoke from California's deadliest wildfire produced air quality levels worse than in South Asia's polluted megacities. 


San Francisco ordered its iconic cable cars returned to their stations as the Air Quality Index (AQI) soared to 271, comparable to Dhaka, Bangladesh and worse than Kolkata, India. The city's AQI means that breathing the air for 24 hours is the same as smoking 11 cigarettes. 'San Francisco's air quality has moved from red or 'unhealthy' to purple or 'very unhealthy' due to local wildfires and weather patterns,' the SFMTA transport authority said on its website. 'The Department of Public Health highly recommends that everyone stay indoors and avoid exposure to the outside air.' Eight additional sets of human remains were found on Friday, raising the Camp Fire death toll from 63 to 71. The Woolsey Fire death toll remained at three victims as the statewide death toll climbed to 74. 

Mayor London Breed announced that public buses would be free for the day in order to ensure people have access to enclosed transportation. A thick blanket of haze enveloped the region and the famous Golden Gate Bridge was shrouded in thick smog. 'It's bad,' said local resident Melvin Karsenti. 'You have this constant haze over the city. The air feels thicker. I've never seen that many people wear (face) masks.' Meanwhile, the missing persons list grew from 631 on Thursday night to 1,011 people who remain unaccounted for in Paradise and surrounding areas affected by the Camp Fire, according to authorities. But officials have stressed it doesn't mean that 1,011 are missing. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the list was dynamic and could easily contain duplicate names and unreliable spellings. Some of the people among the ever-evolving tally have been confirmed as dead by family and friends on social media. 'I want you to understand that this is a dynamic list,' he told reporters. He said that on a positive note, 329 people who had been listed as missing since the fire broke out had so far been accounted for. 

'The information I am providing you is raw data and we find there is the likely possibility that the list contains duplicate names,' he said, adding that some people who had escaped may also be unaware that they have been listed as missing. Firefighters were gaining ground against the blaze, which has devoured an area roughly the size of Chicago since it broke out on November 8. It was 50 per cent contained and posed no immediate threat to populated areas as of Friday night. Searches also continued for those who perished and those who survived the deadliest US wildfire in a century, ahead of a planned visit by president Donald Trump. Some survivors resent that Trump took to Twitter two days after the disaster to blame the wildfires on poor forest mismanagement. He threatened to withhold federal payments from California. 'If you insult people, then you go visit them, how do you think you're going to be accepted? You're not going to have a parade,' Maggie Crowder, of Magalia, said on Thursday. But Stacy Lazzarino, who voted for Trump, said it would be good for the president to see the devastation up close, adding: 'I think by maybe seeing it he's going to be like 'Oh, my goodness', and it might start opening people's eyes.' In a Fox News interview on the eve of his visit, the president repeated his criticism. When asked if he thought climate change contributed to the fires, he said: 'Maybe it contributes a little bit. The big problem we have is management.' 'You need forest management. It has to be,' Trump told Fox. 'I'm not saying that in a negative way, a positive -- I´m just saying the facts.' The Camp Fire laid waste to the town of Paradise at the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and destroyed around 10,000 homes. Much of the rescue work is now focused on Paradise, a community that is home to many retirees who found themselves unable to get out in time. Hundreds of rescuers, backed by sniffer dogs, were going from house to house, as authorities called on relatives of the missing to provide DNA samples to help with body identification. 'I'm still going to keep on looking and hope for the best,' Jhonathan Clark, who was hunting for his brother, sister-in-law and nephew, told AFP. Many of the victims of the Camp Fire have been housed in temporary shelters and are facing homelessness as they try to rebuild their lives. Adding to their misery, an outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus has been reported at several shelters. Public health officials said 41 people had been sick with vomiting and diarrhea as of Wednesday evening and 25 had to be hospitalized. 'The number of sick people is increasing everyday,' the Butte County Health Department said in a statement. While the cause of the Camp Fire is still under investigation, a lawsuit has been filed against the local power company, PG&E, by fire victims claiming negligence. In Southern California, meanwhile, more residents were being allowed back into their homes near Los Angeles after a blaze torched an area the size of Denver and destroyed more than 600 homes and other structures. The Woolsey blaze was nearly 70 per cent contained, as authorities predicted they would have it under control by Monday. Three other people have died in southern California in the Woolsey Fire, which engulfed parts of Malibu, destroying the homes of several celebrities.