Anxiety brews as Caldor Fire grows
Blaze has razed more than 65K acres
EL DORADO, Calif. — Dawn Hoefler was organizing donations for evacuees of the massive Dixie Fire when she received a warning. A different, fast-moving blaze was closing in near her Northern California town and she needed to leave.
Ms. Hoefler and her husband were soon packed and in the car, calling other neighbors near their home in the Sly Park area of Pollock Pines to make sure they were evacuating, too. The Caldor Fire in El Dorado County had gone from several thousand acres Monday, more than tripling in size the next day, and was up to more than 65,000 acres as of Thursday.
The Hoeflers had no idea where to go. They called a hotline that directed them to an evacuation center in El Dorado.
More than 36,000 residents across nine California counties are under evacuation orders as numerous blazes burn in the state, with 23,000 from El Dorado County, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. At evacuation centers, anxiety brewed Thursday over the stress of enduring yet another fire, another evacuation. Many recalled the King Fire that burned nearly 100,000 acres in El Dorado County in 2014, and 2018′s Camp Fire more than 100 miles away. For some, it was not their first evacuation.
As of early Thursday afternoon, a spokesman for the Caldor firefighting efforts said the blaze was still holding to areas south of Highway 50. Much of Pollock Pines sits north of the highway.
“It is in the vicinity of Pollock Pines and it’s under mandatory evacuation,” public information officer Dave Lauchner said about the fire. “Wind conditions are not pushing the fire toward Pollock Pines.”
But the winds could change course. Mr. Lauchner said winds had shifted unfavorably in recent days, and the spread of the fire is “really dependent on that.”
The Caldor Fire had demonstrated what officials described as “extreme fire behavior,” and in a Thursday morning update, officials warned of new spot fires that could spur potential growth of the blaze, even as conditions moderated growth overnight.
As the blaze mushroomed in recent days, fire crews battling the Caldor Fire needed help, and firefighters helping with the Dixie Fire were sent to assist.
“They were released from the Dixie Fire and sent straight over the hill because they were the closest resources available,” Cal Fire Director Thom Porter told reporters Thursday, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Resources have been strained across the state because of the sheer number of active fires, including the Dixie Fire, the state’s secondlargest inferno in history.
“The Dixie Fire took a ton of resources from the state,” Mr. Lauchner told The Washington Post.