#LAKE TAHOE FIRE UPDATE#

At a news conference in Carson City, he noted that ash was falling on him even though the fire was about 20 miles away.Ī firefighter sprays water on hotspots as flames from the Caldor fire burn through trees in Christmas Valley. In Nevada, the governor, Steve Sisolak, urged residents to be prepared, saying there was no timeline for when evacuations might be ordered. Gillespie, a mechanic at Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, said that unlike the northern shore of Lake Tahoe, which is dotted with mansions and second homes, the area currently under threat houses blue-collar workers who make their living at the casinos and ski resorts that make the area so popular. At the evacuation center in Gardnerville, Joe Gillespie said he, his girlfriend and her son left their home in Meyers, south of South Lake Tahoe, on Sunday, bringing clothes, picture frames and collectibles like Hot Wheels toys from the 1960s that Gillespie’s mother gave him. Most residents and visitors had heeded evacuation orders, officials said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the streets of South Lake Tahoe were silent and empty, save for emergency crews. “These factors contribute to the resistance to control that we are seeing with the Caldor fire,” Anthony said. “Historically we used terms such as anomaly, or unprecedented, or extreme to describe wildfires that we have seen burn throughout the state over the past 10 to 20 years,” he added, noting that the terms are no longer appropriate now that drought, climate change and unmanaged forests have changed the stakes.

#LAKE TAHOE FIRE UPDATE#

“We are seeing larger and more destructive fires burn throughout California on a much more frequent basis,” said Chris Anthony, a Cal Fire division chief based in South Lake Tahoe during an evening update on Monday. More than 88% of California – where 15 large wildfires continue to burn – has been classified in extreme drought by the US Drought Monitor. Most of the American west continues to be stricken by drought. The climate crisis has provoked extreme fire behavior and primed the parched landscape for ignition. And we did the best that we could,” he said Tuesday night. “The fire burned through there extremely fast, extremely hot. Cal Fire division chief Erich Schwab said some homes burned, but it was too early to know how many. The fire crossed two major highways earlier in the week and swept down slopes into the Tahoe Basin, where firefighters working in steep terrain were protecting remote cabins. “With those winds, as ran through the forest it created what’s called an active crown fire run, where the fire actually goes from treetop to treetop,” Vollmer said. Stephen Vollmer, a fire behavior analyst for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), said embers were being cast up to a mile out in front of the fire, creating new ignition points, including in some parts of the dense forest that have not burned since 1940 or before. Pushed by strong winds, the Caldor fire has expanded in recent days.

Residents of Douglas county in Nevada were told to leave on Tuesday, although casinos were excluded. A day earlier, roughly 22,000 residents jammed the city’s main artery for hours after they were ordered to leave as the fire advanced. The Caldor fire was 3 miles (5km) outside South Lake Tahoe by Tuesday afternoon, Cal Fire battalion chief Henry Herrera told KGO-TV. The Caldor fire did not make as strong a push toward Tahoe as it did the previous day, said the operations section chief, Tim Ernst, as winds came up less strong than expected and bulldozers made progress creating fire lines.īut with forecasters warning that there will be swirling, gusty winds all Wednesdaycrews face a hard fight to keep the fire from reaching homes in the town of South Lake Tahoe in California and expanding into Nevada. Officials said on Wednesday that, so far, that area had been spared damage to structures.īut further east, officials warned the flames could surge into steep and difficult terrain, where knee-high brush and other “volatile fuels” could lead to explosive conditions that contribute to rapid spread.Ī red flag warning issued for critical fire weather in the area will last into Wednesday night, but meteorologists said the strong gusts would begin to subside, along with the erratic winds that made the fire harder to fight. That section of the fire is bumping up against a community in South Lake Tahoe where residents worked for years to prepare. The fire is pushing east and firefighters are working to keep it moving in that direction, away from homes. By Wednesday afternoon, officials shared a hopeful update on the firefight, with crews from across the country working to keep the flames out of South Lake Tahoe.

Lake tahoe fire