‘Cautious optimism’ as fire crews turn a corner on raging Caldor Fire

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — Twenty days into the fight against the Caldor Fire, crews on Friday were feeling “cautiously optimistic” as they turned a corner on the blaze burning near South Lake Tahoe, officials said.

After significant gains earlier in the week, the fire grew less than 3,000 acres overnight to 212,907 acres. It was 29% contained.

“That’s the fourth straight day of decline in rate of growth, and even more significantly, the last time it grew that small of an amount was 14 days ago,” said Dean Gould, agency supervisor for the Eldorado National Forest. “Things are clearly heading in the right direction for us.”

The fire’s east zone will remain firefighters’ biggest priority heading into the weekend, with flames continuing to creep toward Wrights Lake and the Desolation Wilderness. But crews were able to make a direct attack on the head of the fire, near South Lake Tahoe and the California-Nevada state line, to prevent it from entering the popular resort town.

“That’s the result of a lot of hard work that you’ve put in now in over two weeks of being here,” Tim Ernst, operations section chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told firefighters Friday.

Crews are also focused on tying some “loose ends” around Kirkwood and Christmas Valley, Ernst said.

“We’re not out of the woods, but we also have not seen any growth there as well,” he added.

Much of the fire’s west zone — near its ignition point south of Grizzly Flats — was in “mop-up mode,” officials said, meaning defensive lines were holding and crews were working to cool down the terrain.

Some evacuated neighborhoods on that side of the fire began repopulation.

“I’m grateful as hell to be home,” Pollock Pines resident Brad Hutchinson, 65, said Thursday.

In the parking lot of a Safeway, Hutchinson walked slowly with a cane toward his Honda Accord. He broke his hip years ago and never quite recovered.

He was evacuated two weeks ago and said it cost him $3,000 to stay at a Best Western in Roseville. He said he was dependent on food donations from a local Walmart and churches and noted with gratitude that “there was a lot of help out there.”

But now that he was home, he thought about what comes next: paying the credit card bill, taking care of his two grandsons and stepson, as well as his wife, who was just in the hospital. He hasn’t worked in 12 years because he’s disabled, he said.