“We are finding that there are a lot of people who don’t know that we are looking for them,” the sheriff said. “That is why we are publishing this list.”

Is there a pattern in the people listed as missing?

Many are older. Of the 246 people for whom ages were given, more than 200 were over 60. The youngest person on the list is 20 and the oldest is 101.

Eric Reinbold, the police chief of Paradise, the town worst affected by the fire, said the new list underscored how many older people may have been trapped by the fire.

“Like any community, we had elderly folks and some of them gave up driving or can’t drive,” Chief Reinbold said. “There’s a number of reasons for people not having the ability to evacuate on their own.”

How reliable is the list?

Like the escape from the fire itself, the search for the missing has been at times chaotic. An earlier list published by the sheriff’s office included five people with ages listed at 119 years old. The five are still on the list of the missing but their ages have been removed. At least five names are listed twice and there are also question marks next to some people.

Has anyone on the list been found?

A search through Facebook seems to indicate that at least a dozen people who survived the fire are on the missing list.

David and Frances Neil are listed as missing on the Butte County list, but the couple’s daughter-in-law, Domonique Neil, said they were “safe and with family.”