Redding, California: Not less than nine people were missing as per the reports after a giant wildfire engulfed an area in Northern California and increased by two-thirds in the night after killing two firefighters and destroying many hundreds of buildings and sending many residents to get out from their homes.

Around 3,400 firefighters were working on the ground besides some of them in 17 helicopters fighting the fire over the 80,900 acre (32,740 hectare). The fire was just 5 percent under control early till Saturday as it went on increasing through Redding, a city with population of 90,000 people, in California’s Shasta Trinity area.

The city’s 38,000 residents and elsewhere in Shasta County left their homes as the fire started to spread with speed and intensity on Thursday, destroying not less than 500 homes and businesses and leaving whole of the town, Keswich in smoldering ruins, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

Another 5,000 buildings are under threat, Cal Fire said.

There are currently a total of 89 large wildfires blazing across 14 U.S. states, mostly occurring in the West, according to the facts put by National Interagency Fire Center. Until now, this year, wildfires have burnt almost a total of 4.3 million acres (1.7 million hectares) across the United States country, above the 3.7 million-acre (1.5 million-hectare) average for the same period over the last decade.

About 1,100 people crowded into an evacuation center at Shasta College located outside Redding, on Saturday.

One of those evacuated, 57-year-old David Franceschine, said he had been on a camping trip when the fire started. He rushed back to his home to try to retrieve all his possessions but by the time he arrived, authorities had closed the road completely.

“I couldn’t get anything, could I, Scout?” he asked his white-and-brown-spotted dog. “At least I have you, Scout.”

Franceschine said he supposes the fire might have destroyed all his belongings, which includes the urn that contains the ashes of his son, who died four years ago.

“That’s what bothers me the most,” Franceschine said.

The fire started on Monday afternoon and now has been fed by hot, dry weather and high winds. Temperatures were forecast to reach as much as 109 Fahrenheit (42.8 Celsius) on Saturday, with winds of up to 8 miles per hour (13 km), according to the National Weather Service.

“The winds, high temperatures and dry vegetation still have the potential to fuel fire growth,” Cal Fire said in a morning advisory. “Fire spread has been active in all directions.”

A bulldozer operator and a member of the Redding Fire Department were died due to the blaze. Mercy Medical Center hospital has given treatment to a total of nine people for burns, including three firefighters, spokesman Mike Mangas said on Saturday.

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