A California wildfire raging in the Cascade range has claimed three lives, while a separate blaze has prompted mass evacuations and spread turmoil to the famed wine-producing regions of Napa and Sonoma counties.
Monday's three fatalities in the Zogg Fire in Shasta County, which erupted on Sunday near Redding, north of San Francisco, were reported by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
They were all civilians.
No further details about the victims or how they perished were immediately provided but the deaths bring to 29 the number of people killed since mid-August in a California wildfire season of historic proportions.
The Zogg fire, which has destroyed 146 structures and charred 12,500 hectares of grassy hillsides and oak woodlands thick with dry scrub, coincided with the outbreak of another conflagration in the heart of California's wine country north of the Bay area.
That blaze, dubbed the Glass Fire, has spread across 14,500 hectares of similar terrain in Napa and Sonoma counties since early Sunday, incinerating more than 100 homes and other buildings, forcing thousands of residents to flee and threatening world-renowned vineyard.
Both fires were listed at zero containment on Monday evening. The cause of each was under investigation.
They marked the latest flashpoints in a destructive spate of wildfires this summer across the Western United States.
In California this year, wildfires have scorched 1.5 million hectares since January - far exceeding any single year in state history.
They have been stoked by intense, prolonged bouts of heat, high winds and other weather extremes that scientists attribute to climate change.
More than 7000 homes and other structures have burned statewide so far this year.
The Glass Fire broke out in Napa Valley before dawn near Calistoga before merging with two other blazes into a larger eruption of flames straddling western Napa County and an adjacent swath of Sonoma County.
In one notable property loss, the Chateau Boswell winery in St. Helena - a familiar landmark along the Silverado Trail road running the length of the Napa Valley - went up in flames on Sunday night.
An estimated 60,000 residents have been placed under evacuation orders or advisories in Sonoma and Napa counties combined but no injuries have been reported.
Not everyone heeded evacuation orders.
As neighbours around him fled, Santa Rosa resident Jas Sihota perched himself on his front porch with a garden hose, darting out every 15 minutes to douse nearby spot fires seeded by wind-blown embers.
The radiology technician at a nearby hospital said he had not slept in 24 hours.
"I wouldn't have a house if I didn't stay," said Sihota. At least 10 homes elsewhere on the street beyond the reach of his hose were destroyed.
In 2017, roughly 5 per cent of Santa Rosa's homes were lost when downed power lines sparked a devastating firestorm in October that swept the region, killing 19 people.
The Glass Fire struck about midway through the region's traditional grape-harvesting season.
Australian Associated Press
