blacken

"The fire spread to every corner -- I don't know if any consignment could escape," said one exhausted firefighter, whose uniform was greyed and hands blackened.

She said that people believed there was a "cover-up" and that the McCanns' names had been "blackened" and urged the couple to do a DNA test with Ms Wandelt.

“Char is good but you don’t want it blackened,” he said.

Tole, whose eyes had been blackened out to protect his identity at the time, is wearing what appears to be a neck brace and is hooked up to monitors.

They wake up each morning to reminders of apocalypse: blackened stumps and ghostly bare branches where a tree canopy used to be, and bald rocks and makeshift shelters where homes used to stand.