Authorities issued evacuation alerts for residents in South Lake Tahoe early Monday as the Caldor fire expanded toward the Lake Tahoe Basin around Echo Summit.
The Caldor fire has been ablaze for 16 days and has scorched 177,260 acres of land across El Dorado County, the heart of one of California’s most prominent recreation wilderness areas. High winds expected on Monday make the challenge of extinguishing the flames even more difficult for firefighters, as the fire is just 14% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“To put it in perspective, we’ve been seeing about a half-mile of movement on the fire’s perimeter each day for the last couple of weeks, and today, this has already moved at 2.5 miles on us, with no sign that it’s starting to slow down,” Cal Fire Division Chief Erich Schwab told the Associated Press.
Using sirens to alert civilians in the area, South Lake Tahoe police went door to door to homes at around 2 a.m. to warn residents to evacuate, a local ABC affiliate reported.
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE THREATENS POPULAR TOURIST ATTRACTION LAKE TAHOE
Sirens heard through South Lake Tahoe late into the overnight. Officers telling residents fire is coming down the hill and this evacuation warning is your best opportunity to leave. Facts. pic.twitter.com/prZvSNhYJK
— Van Tieu (@Van_Tieu) August 30, 2021
The forecast for the next several days calls for extreme heat with possible triple-digit temperatures, leading the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for critical fire conditions on Monday and Tuesday across the northern Sierra.
Jeff Marsolais, the forest supervisor for Eldorado National Forest, said the fire “let loose” on Monday, adding, “Today’s been a rough day, and there’s no bones about it.”
In response to the fire, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency for El Dorado County on Aug. 16, when the then-roughly 6,000-acre fire had forced 6,850 county residents to evacuate their homes. The fire had burned up to 65,474 acres by Aug. 19, forcing more than 35,000 additional Californians to evacuate.
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Meanwhile, the Dixie fire, the largest fire this year that has been active since last month, was 48% contained in the Cascade-Sierra region just 65 miles north of the Caldor fire.
The Dixie fire has affected Butte, Plumas, Lassen, and Tehama counties and has scorched 771,183 acres, also destroying 1,277 structures.
