Three people died in a wind-whipped Northern California wildfire that has forced thousands of people from their homes while carving a 25-mile (40.2 kilometres) path of destruction through mountainous terrain and parched foothills, authorities said Wednesday.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and other buildings, are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the blaze northeast of San Francisco, fire officials said at an evening news conference.

Since the middle of August, fires in California have killed 11 people, destroyed more than 3,600 structures, burned old-growth redwoods, charred chaparral and forced evacuations in communities near the coast, in wine country and along with the Sierra Nevada.

Thick smoke Wednesday choked much of the state and cast an eerie orange hue across the sky as thousands of people in communities near Oroville were ordered to evacuate.