LOS ANGELES — The destructive Caldor fire swept into the Lake Tahoe Basin overnight, with firefighters battling to save mountain hamlets, ski resorts and homes as they work to prevent the flames from hitting populated areas near the lake.
The fire was fueled Monday by heavy winds, which allowed it to move much closer to Lake Tahoe. The fire jumped the 50 and 89 highways and was threatening Echo Summit and the community of Meyers south of Lake Tahoe.
But an army of firefighters was on hand, trying to extinguish spot fires and protecting cabins and other structures in the fire’s path. Some structures burned Monday, but it was unclear how many.
The blaze grew to more than 190,000 acres, with nearly 500 structures burned and 33,000 threatened. It was 16% contained Tuesday morning.
The National Weather Service extended its forecast for intense winds moving to the east and southeast through 11 p.m. Wednesday evening, bringing more challenges for firefighters.
“Historically, we’ve used terms such as ‘anomaly,’ ‘unprecedented’ or ‘extreme’ to describe the wildfires that we have seen burn throughout the state over the past 10 to 20 years,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Chris Anthony said during an operations update Monday evening.
“These terms are no longer appropriate given the clear trends associated with drought, changing climate and un-resilient forest stands,” he said. “Unfortunately, these factors contribute to the resistance to control that we are seeing with the Caldor fire.”
Officials still hope the fire won’t hit the city of South Lake Tahoe. If it does, experts say it could be profoundly destructive.
Not only would an urban conflagration in that area threaten lives and homes, but it would also move faster, burn hotter and be significantly harder to fight, according to experts.
“They have long looked to that granite wall as what’s going to keep fire out,” said Crystal Kolden, a fire scientist at UC Merced, referring to a stony ridge atop the Tahoe Basin. “But this is a new world with climate change, and that basically is no longer a viable last line of defense.”
Mandatory evacuations were ordered Monday for the area, causing hours of traffic jams. But by the afternoon, the traffic had eased and the towns were empty.
The evacuation order covers nearly all of the Lake Tahoe Basin in El Dorado County, from the California-Nevada state line on the lake’s southern end to Tahoma on its western shore.
Carol Bin, 61, said she moved her horses to Gardnerville, Nevada, last week. A former Big Bear resident, she has faced evacuations before, and she wasn’t eager to do it again.
“The hardest part is to pack,” Bin said from her driveway in Christmas Valley. “Do I pack for a week? Or do I pack like I’m never coming back?”
Caldor fire spokesman Jason Hunter said the fire had been “spotting” — generating wind-blown sparks that can create new fires — up to half a mile away in recent days.
Strengthening winds in the area, however, could carry dangerous embers well over a mile, he warned. Red-flag warnings in the fire zone indicated that there could be gusts as strong as 35 mph through Wednesday evening.
“Our significant concern is that spotting,” Hunter said, specifically “embers being blown from up at the ridge top landing somewhere down in the valley and taking hold.”
Hunter said crews on were busy making tactical fire stops along the Highway 50 corridor on Echo Summit in an effort to get ahead of further creep.
Cal Fire officials have been preparing for this exact scenario.
“We knew it could happen, and we spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours on public education, evacuation planning, community meetings, defensible-space inspections, shipping programs, home-hardening outreach, fuels-reduction projects and prescribed fire and forest health projects,” Anthony said.
“Although we cannot predict the outcome of the Caldor fire,” he added, “I want to remind the Tahoe community that you are prepared. … These are no doubt trying times, but we will get through them together.”
Michael Hicks, who owns the historic Strawberry Lodge on Highway 50, was among the many area residents anxiously watching the fire’s path from afar.
“Hopefully they can save as much of the community as possible,” Hicks said. But, he added, that is “up to the winds and the firefighters.”
