The Northern California "Camp" fire has claimed at least five lives.

That's  according to local authorities , who reported they found five bodies near the town of Paradise, in Butte County.  The victims were found along a street where there had reportedly been traffic jams as people tried to flee the fast-moving fire.

The Butte County Sheriff's Office said all five died in their cars.  When the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection first announced it was working to contain the fire Thursday morning, it said the blaze was around 1,000 acres.

By Thursday afternoon it had spread over more than 18,000 acres.  As of early Friday, the wildfire had scorched  an estimated 70,000 acres  in Butte county.  CNN reports  that at one point, the fire was growing at a rate of 80 football fields every minute.

The fire has prompted evacuation orders for more than 50,000 people and threatened at least 15,000 structures.

The San Francisco Chronicle  described Paradise as a "ghost town,"  noting that buildings throughout the turn had burned.   So far, fire officials say they've only contained a small portion of the fire.

And firefighters are continuing to wrestle with extreme conditions like high winds and long range spotting.

Additional reporting from  Newsy affiliate CNN .