In Pics: California’s 'Tasmanian devil’ wildfire claims 2 lives, thousands flee

A helicopter drops water on hotspots of the Carr Fire burning in the hills of California's Redding area. Some 37,000 people remained under evacuation orders on Friday, as flames continued to burn in pockets of the city's west side. (Reuters Photo)

The Carr Fire's footprint grew by 60 percent overnight and by Friday morning had scorched 44,450 acres (18,000 hectares), CalFire officials said. The blaze was just 3 percent contained as ground crews, water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers battled the flames for a fifth day. (Reuters Photo)

The Carr Fire was one of nearly 90 large blazes burning nationally, most of them in the West. One of those prompted the closure of much of Yosemite National Park in California. Wildfires have blackened an estimated 4.15 million acres (1.68 million hectares) in the United States this year. That is well above average for the same period over the past 10 years but down from 5.27 million acres (2.13 million hectares) burned in the first seven months of 2017, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. (Reuters Photo)

Video and images posted on social media showed flames engulfing structures, as an orange glow lit up the night sky. Roads out of Redding, about 150 miles (240 km) north of Sacramento, were jammed overnight as motorists rushed to escape. (Reuters Photo)