Shifting winds prompt new alerts as fires rage on
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — The weather here heated up and winds shifted Thursday as more than 14,000 firefighters battled wildfires up and down the state, including a major blaze they hoped to keep out of the Lake Tahoe resort region.
Onshore winds from the west and southwest were changing direction to offshore, blowing out of the north or northeast, and fire weather watches were to go into effect in Northern California by the end of the week, the National Weather Service said.
The Caldor Fire, the nation’s top priority for firefighting resources, grew to more than 213 square miles southwest of Lake Tahoe but containment remained at 12 percent, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Smoke stained the normally blue skies over the alpine lake, but the pollution level Thursday morning was upgraded to “unhealthy,” down two levels of severity from 24 hours earlier when it was “hazardous,” according to the U.S. Air Quality Index.
Assigned resources have grown to nearly 2,900 firefighters, 21 helicopters, 245 engines and dozens of bulldozers since the early days of the fire, which began Aug. 14 and suddenly exploded, gutting the community of Grizzly Flat. Ongoing damage assessments have counted 637 homes, businesses and other structures destroyed.
Statewide there were 14 large fires, including a blaze that erupted Wednesday in Southern California, which so far has escaped the scale of wildfires plaguing the north all summer.
The South Fire, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles, covered 700 acres after destroying 18 homes and other structures. It remained uncontained on mountain slopes.
In the southern Sierra Nevada, the 9-day-old French Fire covered more than 34 square miles and was 19 percent contained. Some structures were seen burning in Sequoia National Forest, and it posed threat to numerous communities on the west side of Lake Isabella, a popular outdoor recreation area northeast of Bakersfield.
Meanwhile, California’s Dixie Fire, the second-largest in state history at 1,167 square miles was 45 percent contained in the Sierra-cascades region about 65 miles north of the Caldor Fire. Nearly 700 homes were among almost 1,300 buildings that have been destroyed since the fire began in early July.
In northeastern Minnesota, dozens of homes, cabins and outbuildings have been destroyed or damaged as the state’s largest wildfire continues burning uncontained, according to Superior National Forest officials.
Authorities say 12 homes or cabins and 57 outbuildings have been lost in the Greenwood Lake fire that has consumed 34 square miles of forest.