The death toll in wildfires raging across California rose to at least 25 over the weekend as three sprawling blazes burnt homes and property, forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed an entire town.

The state is battling major fires at both ends. In northern California, the Camp Fire in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada has become the most destructive fire and the third deadliest in the state’s history.

At least 23 people have died, according to the Butte County sheriff’s office, many in the town of Paradise, which has born the heaviest damage in a fire that has consumed more than 100,000 acres. More than 6,700 buildings have been burnt and the state has spent more than $8.1m fighting the blaze, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the Associated Press.