Sharjah24 – Reuters: At least eight people were missing Saturday as one of the worst wildfires in the nation scorched through Northern California communities, forest and tinder dry scrub in the Sierra Nevada mountains, destroying a historic gold rush town.
Even as the calmer, less windy weather gave firefighters a break overnight with the Dixie fire, the third largest fire in California's history, the Pulmas County Sheriff's Office released the somber news.
"We have received reports of eight unaccounted for individuals," the sheriff's office said in a statement, asking for the public's help in finding them.
Five of the missing belong to the old mining town of Greenville where blazes leveled most of its downtown, about 160 miles north of Sacramento.
Nearly 447,000 acres have already burned in the Dixie fire and it was 21 percent contained by midafternoon, said Edwin Zuniga, a firefighter and spokesman for Cal Fire, the combined firefighting agencies battling the blaze.
Earlier in the week the fire was reported as 35 percent contained, but better mapping clarified the area, officials said.
The cause of the fire is listed as unknown but remains under investigation.
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