An 'extreme' wildfire sweeping through the hills of California has left dozens of people homeless and reduced one of state's most historic towns to ashes.
The 38,000-acre Borel fire is thought to have started at 1pm on Wednesday when a car careened over the side of a canyon on Highway 178 in Kern County, killing the driver and bursting into flames.
By Friday night it had reached the outskirts of Havilah before tearing through the nineteenth century prospecting town that was once home to saloons, dance halls, hotels, and shops.
A charred plaque is all that remains of the courthouse which dated back to 1866 and was designated California's 100th landmark until the fire extinguished its history in the early hours of Saturday. Firefighters are battling a host of massive blazes across the state, including one which is tearing through the area around Butte County at a rate of 5,000 acres an hour.
The Park fire is just 12 percent contained and had already burned more than 360,000 acres by Sunday, making it the seventh largest ever recorded in the state's history.
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