One person has been killed in a rapidly moving wildfire that sent residents fleeing from a northern California city as flames burned homes and businesses and knocked out power.
A bulldozer operator was killed in the so-called Carr Fire, a blaze in Shasta County that has tripled in size in the past two days to 11,300ha, the state's forestry and fire protection department said on Thursday.
The blaze has crossed the Sacramento River and now threatens hundreds of homes on the western fringes of the city of Redding, fire officials said.
Roads out of the city of 90,000 people were jammed with motorists trying to escape the flames, social media postings showed.
"Right now they're doing what they can, they're trying to make a stand where they can, if possible," McLean said.
"It's extreme. It's blowing up off and on again."
Three firefighters and an unknown number of civilians had burns but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
Multiple power outages were reported, the city said on its website, adding the electric utility was shutting off power in its northern areas.
Wildfires throughout the state have burned through tinder-dry brush and forest, forced thousands to leave their homes and caused campers to pack up their tents.
A huge forest fire continued to grow outside Yosemite National Park on Thursday.
Hundreds of kilometres to the south, the Cranston Fire, believed to have been started by arson, grew to 19 sq km and about 3000 residents remained under evacuation orders.
California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in Shasta and Riverside counties over the Carr and Cranston fires, which were being supercharged by temperatures above 37C, erratic winds and low humidity.
