Wildfires had caused at least six deaths by last night as 175,000 people fled blazes across California.
More than 560 fires were threatening homes and buildings across the state, caused by a combination of a heatwave and lightning strikes.
Terrified residents were seen driving as trees overhead burned and verges threatened to torch their vehicles.
As firefighters were drafted in from other states, California governor Gavin Newsom pleaded with Australia and Canada to send wildfire experts.
And he called on President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster so more resources could be freed up.
He said: “These fires are stretching our resources – we haven’t seen anything like this in many, many years.”
The worst fires were last night raging in mountains to the east and south of San Francisco.
Many of the blazes were burning on steep slopes that are hard to reach and were being whipped up by wind.
The fires were also threatening larger towns such as Santa Cruz where flames were within a mile of the campus at California University.
So far 771,000 acres have been destroyed in the fires that grew through the week, an area bigger than the whole state of Rhode Island.
California is also the worst-hit state for Covid-19 with 12,000 deaths, meaning some evacuated people are too scared to seek refuge in shelters.
Meanwhile the heatwave has caused spikes in energy use and blackouts.
