YREKA, US: Firefighters in northern California were battling Monday to gain control over the state’s largest wildfire this year, which claimed two lives after exploding in size over the weekend and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. Whipped up by strong winds and lightning storms, the McKinney Fire ripped through the state’s dry terrain Sunday to spread over some 52,500 acres of Klamath National Forest near the town of Yreka — and was zero percent contained as of Sunday night according to CalFire. California and other parts of the western United States have been ravaged by huge and fas…