Evacuation gridlock as fire approaches resort
A FEROCIOUS wildfire is approaching Lake Tahoe just hours after roads were clogged with fleeing cars as the entire California resort city of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to evacuate.
Communities just across the state line in Nevada have also been warned to get ready to leave.
The popular holiday destination, which is normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists, was emptied out on Monday as the massive Caldor Fire expanded to the north and south.
Vehicles loaded with bikes and camping gear and hauling boats were gridlocked in traffic among the hazy atmosphere.
“It’s more out of control than I thought,” evacuee Glen Naasz said of the fire that by late on Monday had crossed state highways 50 and 89 and burned mountain cabins as it moved down slopes into the Tahoe Basin.
Residents just over the state line in Douglas County, Nevada, were under evacuation warnings.
Monday’s fresh evacuation orders, unheard of in the city, came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were abruptly ordered to leave as the fire raged nearby.
“There is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before. The critical thing for the public is evacuate early,” said Chief Thom Porter, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Mr Porter said only twice in California history have blazes burned from one side of the Sierra Nevada to the other, both this month, with the Caldor and Dixie fires.