Update (10/21/21): More than two months after it was first reported, a report from firefighting officials said the Caldor Fire was 100 percent contained by firefighters late Wednesday. Helping out firefighters were storms that covered the western side of the fire in snow, and the eastern side in rain.
The fire, which threatened the Lake Tahoe resort area, burned more than 346 square miles of the Sierra Nevada. It destroyed 1,000 building, including more than 770 homes.
Authorities said the fire will continue smoldering long into the winter.
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Original Story (9/1/21): Firefighters caught a break in their fight against the Caldor Fire. Weather played a big role. The video above shows Tuesday night blazes in El Dorado National Forest.
“We lucked out a little bit yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected them to,” Operations Section Chief Tim Ernst told firefighters in a morning briefing. He said this led to a cap of warm air over cooler air, also known as an inversion layer, “that put a real damper on things, slowed a lot of growth”.
“We were fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day,” Ernst said. He went on to say there has been progress in using bulldozers to create fire lines, as there was “a lot of opportunity to make a lot of progress last night”.
“We’ve got some great dozer line that protects structures here, so this whole community is looking really good right now,” Ernst said.
Despite the positive updates, forecasters warn there will be swirling, gusty winds all day Wednesday. According to the National Wildlife Coordinating Group, as of just before 11:30 a.m. EST Wednesday, firefighters could expect to fight the Caldor Fire with more dry conditions and gusts up to 35-40 mph in some areas.
The fire has already surpassed 200,000 acres in size. As of Wednesday morning, it was only 20 percent contained.
Thick smoke from the fire has enveloped the city of South Lake Tahoe, which has been all but deserted during a time of year that is usually bustling with tourists. South Lake Tahoe city officials said only a handful of residents defied an evacuation order issued Monday. Roughly 22,000 residents jammed the city’s main artery for hours.
The Caldor fire itself has swept down slopes into the Tahoe Basin, where firefighters were protecting remote cabins. The California Fire Division reported homes burned in the area, but it was too early to know how many. In total, the fire has destroyed more than 600 buildings, and threatened at least 33,000 more.
