In northern California, the weather is expected to cool slightly and the humidity to rise starting on Tuesday.Ĭalifornia and much of the US west have experienced dozens of wildfires in the past two months as the warming, drought-stricken region swelters under dry heat and winds drive flames through vegetation. Winds have been easing, allowing firefighters to make progress containing the conflagration, but authorities remain concerned about south-west winds sparking spot fires. Much depends on the wind, rain and lightning that coming thunderstorms may yield. Photograph: Noah Berger/APįire officials still expect hotspots, but hope to make enough progress to lift more evacuation orders in the coming days.
“The road back to some sense of normalcy for us is no doubt going to be long and no doubt going to have some challenges with it,” Blankenheim said.Ī chair lift at the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort is burned by the Caldor fire. The fire has been “one of the most impactful events that I think we’ve ever seen here”, said Mike Blankenheim, the chief of the Amador-El Dorado unit of the California department of forestry and fire protection, or Cal Fire.
Some ski areas have even been repurposing snowmaking canons to fight the flames by dousing their properties with water.
Through tactics including bulldozing defense lines and air-dropping Lake Tahoe water on to the flames, crews successfully carved a perimeter around much of the wildfire. The Caldor fire erupted on 14 August and was burning as many as 1,000 acres an hour at its peak as it spread across dense forests, tree-dotted granite cliffs and scattered cabins and hamlets in the northern Sierra Nevada. “I was honestly convinced this place was gonna go down,” said Lake Tahoe Community College student Dakota Jones on Monday upon his return. The city appeared slightly rebounded on Monday, yet mostly empty compared with normal holiday weekends. The fire has consumed more than 216,000 acres, and transformed South Lake Tahoe into a ghost town when the impending flames forced residents to flee. “And if it comes sooner, we are already in the planning process for the whole area that’s still under evacuation order.” We want to make sure we’re planning and having stuff ready and completed,” said Cal Fire official John Davis. “We’re also looking long term, what’s going to happen, four, five or six days down the road. Some sections of the fire perimeter remained a concern but on much of the rest of the fire the work turned to mopping up, pulling miles of fire hose out of the forest and felling dangerously weakened trees.įirefighters are still working to contain south-east sections of the Caldor fire in the Lake Tahoe area. The blaze remains only 49% contained and still threatens areas south of the town.įirefighters are confronting aggressive winds and flames in some south-east sections of the Caldor fire, which could still reach Meyers, a community more than a mile high known as the gateway to Lake Tahoe, and other areas including the Kirkwood ski resort. While the decision to lift the evacuation order is a hopeful sign, more than 5,000 personnel are still working to protect the surrounding resort communities and the homes of employees who staff casinos, restaurants and ski resorts. The Caldor fire grew by just a few hundred acres over the past 24 hours and containment lines were holding well, officials said at a Monday morning briefing. Residents faced an unprecedented evacuation order last week when the blaze came terrifyingly close to the popular resort city.
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