Body found after Calif. wildfire

SACRAMENTO, July 11 (UPI) -- One person has died in the Butte County, Calif., wildfire, officials confirmed Friday as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called up more help.

While few details were available, the Butte County Sheriff's Department said the body of a person apparently killed in the wildfire was found near one of the homes that burned earlier this week in Concow, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Meanwhile Schwarzenegger called up 2,000 more National Guard troops to assist in battling wildfires raging throughout Northern California.

Firefighters from Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Greece also started to arrive to augment exhausted personnel who have been fighting hundreds of blazes since June 20.

Glen Cannon, an official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the 1,700 lightning-sparked fires across the state were "unprecedented in size and number." About 300 are still active.

"They have essentially exhausted all the internal resources within California," Cannon said.

In Big Sur, a blaze hit a Zen monastery in the Los Padres National Forest Thursday, but five Buddhist monks who remained behind helped beat back the flames, the Times reported. The fire destroyed three smaller buildings.

"Praise the Buddha," said Keither Meyerhoff, a spokesman for the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center who talked to the monks via satellite phone.

The fires have burned more than 725,000 acres from the coast to the borders of Oregon and Nevada.