Wildfire's smoke delays 200 flights in San Francisco

San Francisco International Airport says nearly 200 flights have been delayed because of low visibility and smoke caused by wildfires in Northern California.

Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said that as of noon on Friday about 15 per cent, or 195 flights, have had delays averaging 45 minutes.

On Thursday, about 500 were delayed, representing about 40 per cent of the airport's flights. The airport averages about 1,250 flights per day.

Yakel said smoke was the main factor in low visibility conditions, with visibility at about 2.4 kilometers Friday compared to 16 kilometers on a normal day.

The airport is urging travellers to check with their airlines or the airport's website for their flights' status.

Schools across the San Francisco Bay Area were closed Friday as winds carried smoke from wildfires in Northern California that blanketed towns and cities hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.

Authorities say it is hard to get a handle on the number of missing in the aftermath of Northern California wildfire that is the deadliest in the country in at least a century.

The number has fluctuated from day to day, with the latest report standing at more than 600 unaccounted for. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea acknowledged the list is "dynamic" and includes reports from the disaster's frantic early hours.

Some who are on the ever-evolving list have been confirmed as deceased by family and friends on social media. Others have been located safely, but authorities have not yet marked them as found.

In last year's Northern California wine country wildfires, Sonoma County authorities at one point listed more than 2,000 people as missing. But they slowly whittled down the number.

In the end, 44 people died in a that series of fires in several counties.

Hundreds of people displaced by the Northern California wildfire have lined up outside a mall in the city of Chico where the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up an assistance center inside what used to be a Sears department store.

Authorities have so far counted 616 structures were destroyed and 183 damaged by the deadly Southern California fire.

The latest numbers issued Friday morning reflect damage assessments in 57 per cent of the burned area.

Containment of the fire has also increased to 69 per cent of the fire zone encompassing 396 square kilometers of suburbs and wilderness west of Los Angeles.

Officials say they have contained almost half of a Northern California deadly blaze that razed a town and killed at least 63 people.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Friday the wildfire that destroyed the town of Paradise is now 45 per cent contained, up from 40 per cent Thursday morning.

The department says the blaze has charred 575 square kilometers, destroyed 144 apartment buildings and 9,700 homes.

Forecasters are predicting rain early next week for the Northern California area where a deadly blaze that decimated a town continues to burn a week after it started.

The wet weather could help firefighters extinguish the massive blaze earlier than expected.

At least 63 people were killed after the fire swept through Paradise and other communities on Nov 8.

Fire officials in Northern California say the list of 631 people missing in the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century probably includes people who fled the blaze and don't know they're being sought.

The Northern California fire that began a week earlier obliterated the town of Paradise. Searchers have pulled bodies from incinerated homes and cremated cars. But in many cases, the victims may have been reduced to bits of bones and ash.