San Francisco, Sep 29 At least three people were killed, while thousands others were evacuated from their homes due to a massive wildfire in Northern California, according to media reports.
On Monday, the deaths were confirmed by Shasta County Sheriff Eric Magrini without providing further details, reports USA Today.
The blaze, dubbed Zogg Fire, burned through 31,200 acres near Redding, while another blaze, Glass Fire, has scorched more than 36,200 acres in the Napa and Sonoma wine counties, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's (Cal Fire) said in its latest update.
Both fires were at 0 per cent containment as of Monday night.
A least one winery has been charred, according to the San Francisco-based KPIX TV station.
Meanwhile, evacuation orders were issued for over 50,000 people in Napa and Sonoma counties, where two smaller offshoots of the Glass Fire, the Shady and Boysen, merged to expand the blaze.
The entire town of Calistoga, population 5,200, was put under evacuation orders on Monday night, according to Cal Fire.
This fire season, California has witnessed 8,136 fires that have scorched 3,754,729 acres of land.
Since August 15, 29 people have died, while 7,776 structures have been destroyed.
( With inputs from IANS )
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