Two dead in largest blaze this year

Firefighters in northern California were battling yesterday to gain control over the state's largest wildfire this year, which claimed two lives after exploding in size over the weekend and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. Whipped up by strong winds and lightning storms, the McKinney Fire ripped through the state's dry terrain Sunday to spread over some 52,500 acres of Klamath National Forest near the town of Yreka -- and was zero percent contained as of Sunday night according to CalFire. California and other parts of the western United States have been ravaged by huge and fast-moving wildfires in recent years, driven by years of drought and exacerbated by a warming climate. The McKinney fire, which broke out Friday near the border with Oregon, is California's largest wildfire so far this year -- though it remains much smaller than last year's Dixie Fire, which burned nearly one million acres. According to the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, firefighters on Sunday found two people dead inside a burned-out car on the driveway of a home in the community of Klamath River -- in the fire's path.