Even as the calmer, less windy weather gave firefighters a break overnight with the Dixie fire, the third largest fire in California's history, the Pulmas County Sheriff's Office released the somber news.
"We have received reports of eight unaccounted for individuals," the sheriff's office said in a statement, asking for the public's help in finding them.
Five of the missing belong to the old mining town of Greenville where blazes leveled most of its downtown, about 250 kilometres north of Sacramento.
