A Kiwi has described the terrifying moment she was evacuated from her northern California home as a deadly wildfire killed at least two people and consumed more than 500 structures with little warning today.
Aucklander Sasha Bruneau-Herman told 1 NEWS she and her family moved to Redding last year.
Ms Bruneau-Herman was evacuated from her Redding home with her father, husband and the couple's two children.
"It was insane! The skies grew darker and darker and it was raining ash!" Ms Bruneau-Herman said.
"We had dinner out last night, and when we got out the sky was dark from smoke but red too, dad was like, 'Oh, it's the sun setting' and I said, No, dad - It's 6.30pm, the sun is up there, the sky is red from the flames!' So we knew we really had to be on alert."
Ms Bruneau-Herman said she could see "helicopters coming in one after the other trying to douse the flames without much effect".
"You could literally hear the roar of the flames from our street even though it was burning a couple of miles away," she said as "golf ball-sized embers [fell] from the sky" near her workplace.
Ms Bruneau-Herman said she was "eager to go home" but had "no real idea" when the family could return.
"We are meant to be moving house on Monday but I don’t even know if we can!?"
The family are currently staying at a hotel one hour from Redding.
Currently, 37,000 people remain under evacuation orders as 5,000 homes continue to be threatened by the 194-square-kilometre blaze, the Associated Press reports.
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