Firefighters in northern California are battling to prevent a series of wildfires from spreading into a canyon where tinder-dry conditions could cause the flames to spread rapidly

Firefighters in northern California are battling to prevent a series of wildfires from spreading into a canyon where tinder-dry conditions could cause the flames to spread rapidly

Several homes have been destroyed near Sacramento and hundreds more are threatened. Air tankers were temporarily grounded after a pilot was killed fighting a separate fire, when his plane crashed in Yosemite National Park.

Materials prepared with aid of information agencies