The Caldor Fire continues to creep closer to Lake Tahoe Tuesday. The video above shows the blaze, and we hear from some South Lake Tahoe residents talk about the fire that has threatened their homes.
According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, the fire spread across 191,607 acres by noon EST. It was 16 percent contained. “It’s more out of control than I thought,” evacuee Glen Naasz said.
Residents and summer tourists evacuated the popular summer vacation spot on Monday.
Additional firefighters arrived just after dark Monday. Many were dispatched to protect homes in the Christmas Valley area about 10 miles from the city of South Lake Tahoe.
The increase in the firefighting force comes as the National Weather Service warned of fire-friendly weather conditions through Wednesday. The service predicted strong gusts and low humidity.
23 helicopters and three air tankers dumped thousands of gallons of water and retardant on the fire, according to fire spokesman Dominic Polito.
Monday’s evacuation orders included South Lake Tahoe’s main medical facility. Dozens of patients were evacuated. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office transferred inmates to a neighboring jail.
Traffic out of South Lake Tahoe crawled Monday. Mayor Tamara Wallace said the evacuation was orderly because residents heeded officials’ orders. However California Highway Patrol Assistant Commissioner Ryan Okashima said the patrol added “quite a bit of additional personnel” to help guide what he called a chaotic evacuation.
Only twice in California history have fires burned from one side of the Sierra Nevada to the other. Both of those happened this summer with the Caldor and Dixie fires.
“There is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before. The critical thing for the public to know is evacuate early,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter said. “For the rest of you in California, every acre can and will burn someday in this state.”
The Director of California’s Office of Emergency Services said more than 15,000 firefighters are battling dozens of California blazes. This includes crews from Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia. Crews from Louisiana had to return to that state because of Hurricane Ida.