Updated | 10 dead in northern California wildfires

Raging wildfires that ripped through the North Bay of San Francisco in the coastal east of the United States killed at least 10 people and injured hundreds on Monday, officials said.

The blaze, which broke out overnight in the northern Wine Country in San Francisco, has burned at least 1,500 homes and commercial facilities in several fires now burning in eight Northern California counties, said Ken Pimlott, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Tens of thousands of local residents were forced to flee the area that was reduced into wastelands of twisted metal and ash, as firefighters sought to contain the flames supercharged by wind gusts up to 114 km per hour.

Santa Rosa, the county seat and the largest city in Sonoma County of California, took the hardest hit, where Sonoma County Sheriff's officials said seven people have been killed in the wildfires.

State fire officials said two people have died in a blaze in Napa and a 10th person was killed in Mendocino County.

Hundreds of people were treated for injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation at hospitals in Napa, Sonoma and other counties, the major wine country region of San Francisco. Two patients with severe burns were in critical condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, officials said.

The blazes burned down more than 65,000 acres (about 2,631 hectares) of land and blanketed much of the Bay Area in cough-inducing smoke.

The most damaging series of blazes in modern California history have left thousands of evacuees in scores of emergency shelters and parts of the state wine industry potentially crippled.

California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency for Napa and Sonoma as well as fire-struck Yuba County.

Sonoma County is the largest producer of California's Wine Country region, which also includes Napa, Santa Rosa, Mendocino, and Lake counties. It possesses 13 approved American Viticultural Areas and over 250 wineries.

Sonoma is the northwesternmost county in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)