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California’s wildfire claims 4 lives

On the fifth day of a forest fire raging in northern California near the Oregon border, search teams located two more bodies bringing to four the number of people who perished in what has been considered California’s largest blaze this year, officials said on Tuesday.

It was on Monday, in separate homes along a highway that runs through the fire zone in the Klamath National Forest about 483 km north of San Francisco that the latest two victims were found, as reported by the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday the remains of two other people, the first confirmed victims of the fire, were discovered inside a burned-out car that ran off the driveway of another home along the same highway, sheriff’s officials said on Monday, adding that the victims were apparently trying to escape the fire at the last minute.

Further information on any of the deaths would be released only once identification is made and the next of kin have been notified, authorities said.

Dubbed the McKinney fire, the blaze has charred more than 22,662 hectares of drought-parched timber, tall grass and brush, since its eruption on Friday, fire officials said on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, roughly 4,500 people were under evacuation orders, sheriff’s spokesperson Courtney Kreider said, adding that an estimated 100 structures, from sheds to houses, have been consumed by flames.

She went on to say that an especially hard hit was the unincorporated riverfront enclave of Klamath River, with a population of fewer than 200 residents. The community lost numerous homes and its community centre to the fire.

Close to 5,000 dwellings countywide were listed as threatened by flames.

Firefighters make progress

The increase in the death toll followed a night of relatively mild fire growth compared with previous nights. Owning to high humidity levels, the flames were tamped down while crews made progress carving buffer lines to protect communities on the edge of the fire zone, Dennis Burns, a fire behaviour analyst for the incident management team, told a morning briefing.

The bulk of the effort was focused on the outskirts of Yreka, the Siskiyou County seat and former Gold Rush town now home to 7,800 residents.

Mr Burns said thunderstorms in the forecast may bring either a much-welcomed rainfall to the area or erratic winds that could fan the flames anew, as well as possible lightning strikes that might ignite further fires.

Investigators seek to uncover the cause of the McKinney blaze.

Record-breaking heat in the region full of drought-desiccated trees and undergrowth contributed to the eruption of the fire.

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