Two more bodies were found within the burn zone of a huge Northern California wildfire, raising the death toll to four in the state's largest blaze of the year, authorities said Tuesday.
Search teams discovered the additional bodies Monday at separate residences along State Route 96, one of the only roads in and out of the remote region near the state line with Oregon, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
"This brings the confirmed fatality number to 4," the sheriff's statement said. "At this time there are no unaccounted for persons." Other details were not immediately disclosed.
Two bodies were also found found Sunday inside a charred vehicle in the driveway of a home near the tiny unincorporated community of Klamath River, which sustained major damage in the McKinney Fire, sheriff's officials said.
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"It's really tragic when a fire gets up and moves this fast and basically takes out a community. And that's what happened in the Klamath River area," Mike Lindbery, a spokesperson with the fire's incident management team, said Tuesday.
As flames raged over the weekend, Franklin Thom fled his home in the small city of Yreka where he grew up on the edge of a national forest in California. He made it to a shelter with his daughter and just his medicine, some clothes and his shower shoes. Unlike some others, he was told that he had escaped with his home still standing."
"Keep your prayers out for us," said Thom, 55.
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More than 100 homes, sheds and other buildings have burned in the McKinney Fire since it erupted last Friday. Rain helped firefighters as they worked to control the spread of the fire, but the blaze remained out of control, authorities said.
The Northern California wildfire has burned nearly nearly 88 square miles (228 square kilometers), and is the largest of several wildfires burning in the Klamath National Forest. A smaller fire near the tiny community of Happy Camp forced evacuations and road closures as it burned out of control Tuesday. Still more fires are raging in the Western U.S., threatening thousands of homes.
