Dixie fire: eight missing in largest single wildfire in California history

Judge demands information from PG&E utility as investigators seek cause of blaze spanning 698 sq miles

At least eight people were missing on Saturday as what has become the largest single wildfire in California's recorded history continued to scorch through northern communities, forest and tinder-dry scrub in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

People in the scenic region were already facing a weekend of fear as the huge Dixie fire threatened to reduce thousands of homes to ashes.