MIDDLETOWN, California: An explosive wildfire burned largely unchecked Monday after incinerating homes, apartment blocks and hundreds of other buildings as it raced through rural communities in Northern California’s Lake County, leaving at least one person dead and sending thousands fleeing down flame-lined streets.

A second massive wildfire, less than 200 miles away is blamed for destroying 135 homes as it spread through the Sierra Nevada. That fire was 30 percent contained.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection confirmed Sunday one fatality in the Lake County wildfire that raced through dry brush and exploded in size within hours. In addition to the homes, officials also counted two apartment complexes and 10 businesses destroyed by the flames, department spokeswoman Lynn Valentine said.

Valentine couldn’t provide details on the circumstances of the death. By Monday morning, crews had gained 5 percent containment of the 95-square-mile blaze.

In addition, up to 1,000 structures such as barns, sheds and other outbuildings were burned, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.

A shift in the weather was expected for the first part of the week as a trough of low pressure approached the West Coast. The National Weather Service said that would mean a cooling trend with increasing winds, higher humidity and showers, then more widespread precipitation Wednesday. The week will end drier and warmer.

In Lake County, residents fled from Middletown, dodging smoldering telephone poles, downed power lines and fallen trees as they drove through billowing smoke.

Whole blocks of houses were burned in parts of the town of more than 1,000 residents that lies about 20 miles north of the famed Napa Valley. On the west side of town, house after house was burned to their foundations, with only charred appliances and twisted metal garage doors still recognizable.

Wind gusts that reached up to 30 mph sent embers raining down on homes and made it hard for firefighters to stop the Lake County blaze from advancing, Berlant said.

Four firefighters who are members of a helicopter crew suffered second-degree burns during the initial attack on the fire. They remained hospitalized in stable condition.

The fire continued to burn in all directions, triggering the evacuation of a stretch along Highway 281, including Clear Lake Riviera, a town with about 3,000 residents. It was threatening critical communications infrastructure as well as a power plant, Cal Fire said.

The fire erupted Saturday afternoon and rapidly chewed through brush and trees parched from four years of drought. Entire towns as well as residents along a 35-mile stretch of State Route 29 were evacuated. Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday declared a state of emergency to free up resources.

Brown had already declared a state of emergency for the separate 111-square-mile wildfire about southeast of Sacramento that has turned the grassy, tree-studded Sierra Nevada foothills an eerie white.