The bodies of the two dead were found inside a car in the driveway of a property caught in the blaze.

Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue told ABC News the pair seemed to have been trying to escape.

The McKinney Fire has burned more than 55,000 acres, making it California’s largest this year.

The identities of the two dead people are not being released until their families have been notified.

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency over the fire, which began on Friday afternoon before rapidly exploding in size due to a combination of dry fuel after a drought, strong winds and lightning strikes.

Around 650 firefighters were battling to contain the fire, officials said, but with little success. Officials said on Monday that it was “0% contained”, but that light rains overnight had prevented the fire from spreading quicker.

As a result, more than 2,000 inhabitants of the area around the Klamath National Forest were told to evacuate.

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The McKinney Fire, which started in the northern Siskiyou county on Friday, has already burnt 21,000 hectares (52,500 acres), the state’s fire service said.

At least 2,000 residents as well as trekkers on the Pacific Crest hiking trail have left the area. An unknown number of homes have been destroyed.

It was still 0% contained on Monday morning, the fire service reported.

McKinney Fire is burning in the Klamath National Forest, near the border with Oregon. Some 650 firefighters are battling the flames in punishing heat, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A red flag warning indicating the threat of dangerous fire conditions is in place, as California suffers from persistent drought conditions.

A state of emergency was declared in Siskiyou county on Saturday, after homes were destroyed and infrastructure was threatened, state governor Gavin Newsom said.

The fire was “intensified and spread by dry fuels, extreme drought conditions, high temperatures, winds and lightning storms,” he added.

Several communities are being threatened, including Yreka and Fort Jones, the US Forest Service said.

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In the San Francisco Bay Area, locals woke to an apocalyptic, orange-tinged sky Wednesday.

More than 90 major fires have burnt an area of land about the size of Connecticut.

“It’s after 9 a.m. and there’s still no sign of the sun,” the California Highway Patrol’s Golden Gate division tweeted, urging drivers to turn on their headlights and slow down.

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Air quality warnings were issued throughout the Pacific Northwest, and people in communities from southern Oregon to north of Seattle have experienced choking smoke.

Here are photos and videos showing the nightmarish conditions that the fires are causing in states including California, Oregon and Washington: