Cal Fire said 6,713 structures have been destroyed, 6,453 homes and 260 commercial buildings, as of 6 p.m. Friday.

The wildfire topped the Tubbs Fire, which destroyed 5,636 structures in Sonoma County in October 2017.

The fire, named the Camp Fire, has also claimed nine lives, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said.

The wildfire ignited around 6:30 a.m. Thursday in the Camp Creek Road area near Highway 70 in the Feather River Canyon. The fire had charred 90,000 acres and was 5 percent contained by Friday evening.

About 52,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, Cal Fire said, and 1,385 are in evacuation shelters. About 15,000 structures are threatened by the blaze.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

PG&E said in a report Friday that a transmission line in Butte County experienced an outage minutes before the Camp Fire erupted.

DEATHS AND INJURIES

Nine people have died in the Camp Fire, the sheriff's office said.

Four people were found inside of a burned vehicle, one person was found outside of that vehicle, three people were found outside of homes and one person was found inside of a home.

Their identities have not been released.

At least seven people have been injured so far, including three firefighters, officials said.

CHP said it has aircraft working with Enloe Medical Center to treat patients.

BATTLING THE BLAZE

Windy conditions and low humidity caused the flames to spread quickly when the fire ignited, officials said.

"There was really no firefight involved," Cal Fire Capt. Scott McLean said, explaining that crews gave up attacking the flames and instead helped people get out alive. "These firefighters were in the rescue mode all day (Thursday)."

When Paradise was evacuated, the order set off a desperate exodus in which many motorists got stuck in gridlocked traffic and abandoned their vehicles to flee on foot. It was like the entire town of 27,000 residents decided to leave at once, evacuees said. Fire surrounded the evacuation route, and drivers panicked. Some crashed and others left their vehicles by the roadside.

"It was just a wall of fire on each side of us, and we could hardly see the road in front of us," police officer Mark Bass said.

People reported seeing much of the community go up in flames, including homes, supermarkets, businesses, restaurants, schools and a retirement center.

"Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed. It's that kind of devastation," Scott McLean said Thursday. "The wind that was predicted came and just wiped it out."

Rural areas fared little better. Many homes have propane tanks that were exploding amid the flames.

"They were going off like bombs," said Karen Auday, who escaped to a nearby town.

The wind-driven flames also spread to the west and reached Chico, a city of 90,000 people. Firefighters were able to stop the fire at the edge of the city, Cal Fire Cpt. Bill Murphy said.

"The fire area is still under the influence of low relative humidity's, dry fuel moistures," Cal Fire said in a statement. "Moderate to extreme fire behavior was observed over the fire area including spotting, wind and fuel driven runs. The fire will continue to burn to the northwest impacting the communities of Magalia and Paradise Lake."

The massive blaze spread north Friday, prompting officials to order the evacuation of Stirling City and Inskip, two communities north of Paradise along the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Officials were sending as many firefighters as they could, Cal Fire spokesman Rick Carhart said Thursday.

"Every engine that we could put on the fire is on the fire right now, and more are coming," he said. "There are dozens of strike teams that we're bringing in from all parts of the state."

More than 3,200 fire personnel are fighting the blaze, including 440 engines, 18 water tenders, 23 helicopters, 67 hand crews and 67 dozers.

Acting California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the area Thursday.

President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration providing federal funds for Butte, Ventura and Los Angeles counties on Friday.