Devastating wildfires scorch northern California

Northern California wildfires that have incinerated two mountain communities continue marching through the Sierra Nevada range while a utility company purposely blacked out as many as 51,000 customers to prevent new blazes. Two weeks after the Dixie Fire destroyed most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville, the Caldor Fire a few miles southeast exploded through tinder-dry trees and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a forest community of around 1,200 people. Fire officials on Wednesday estimated that at least 50 homes had burned in the area since the fire erupted on Saturday and two people were hospitalised with serious injuries.