California's Dixie Fire has burned nearly 700 square miles, larger than the size of New York City

At least five people are missing and thousands are anxiously waiting at evacuation centers as California's Dixie Fire, now the nation's largest wildfire, rips through Northern California communities and threatens to incinerate thousands of homes.

The Plumas County Sheriff's Office is asking for help finding the people who have been reported missing during the blaze, according to a late Friday statement. The office found 16 missing people Friday.

Eight people were missing as of Saturday morning. Officials located five during the day but added two others to the missing list. Family members of two of the other missing say they are safe, but officials must contact them in person to remove them from the list, Plumas sheriff's deputy Chandler Peay said Saturday afternoon.

No injuries or deaths have been reported.

The Dixie Fire spanned nearly 700 square miles (447,723 acres) on Saturday night, engulfing an area larger than the size of New York City, and is just 21% contained. Fire officials say 268 homes have been destroyed, and the historic Mount Harkness Lookout in Lassen Volcanic National Park was confirmed lost by the park's superintendent on Saturday night.

The fire is the third-largest wildfire in California history. But it is the largest single wildfire in the state's history. The wildfires in 2020 and 2018 holding the top two positions were both complexes.

Charred buildings, burned cars and an abandoned town: Haunting photos of California wildfire aftermath

Fortunately, better weather conditions, including higher humidity and calmer winds, were expected to aid the fight against the blaze Saturday. Temperatures are expected to top 90 degrees, rather than the triple-digit highs earlier in the week.

Cal Fire said it expects full containment by Aug. 20, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

As hot, bone-dry, gusty weather hit California on Wednesday and Thursday, the fire raged through Greenville, a Gold Rush-era Sierra Nevada community of about 1,000, incinerating much of the downtown that included wooden buildings more than a century old.

Sheriff Todd Johns, who said he was a lifelong Greenville resident, said more than 100 homes were destroyed in the Greenville and Indian Falls areas.

"To the folks that have lost residences and businesses," Johns said, "their life is now forever changed. And all I can tell you is I’m sorry."

'Catastrophically destroyed': Dixie Fire wipes out California gold rush town of Greenville