New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Residents return to Lake Tahoe area as crews stall wildfire
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Thousands of people who fled South Lake Tahoe under threat of a wildfire were allowed to return as crews stalled the flames from advancing, but many shops remained dark Monday and the resort town’s normally bustling streets remained quiet.
A week ago, the scenic tourist town on the California-Nevada state line emptied out when authorities issued an evacuation order as the fire approached from south. Now, traffic is trickling back but nothing like the crowds that typically pour in over the summer to enjoy Lake Tahoe’s crystalline waters, which are covered by a smoky haze.
Lake Tahoe Community College student Dakota Jones returned Monday to South Lake Tahoe after being evacuated to Carson City, Nevada. He said he worried he’d find buildings damaged or covered in ash and was pleasantly surprised to find the city of 22,000 people largely untouched when he and his
roommates, who were in the process of moving when the fire approached, drove a U-Haul full of their belongings back to their old apartment.
“I was honestly convinced this place was gonna go down,” Jones said. “It was nice to see that I was wrong.”
Evacuation orders for South Lake Tahoe and other lakeside areas were downgraded to warnings Sunday afternoon and California Highway Patrol officers
began removing roadblocks along State Highway 50 from Nevada to the city limits. Authorities warned that residents of the scenic forest area weren’t out of the woods yet, with risks ranging from smoky, foul air to belligerent bears.
The threat from the Caldor Fire hasn’t entirely vanished but downgrading to a warning meant those who wish could return to their homes in what had been a smoke-choked ghost town instead of a thriving
Labor Day getaway location. South Lake Tahoe Fire
Chief Clive Savacool said officials hoped to have the hospital emergency room open within 24 hours but people with health problems might want to consider staying away due to the air quality.
Authorities also warned that in the absence of humans, bears had gone to town, spreading trash everywhere that must be picked up.
“The delicate balance between humans and bears has been upset,” and anyone who thinks a bear may have entered their home should call law enforcement, El Dorado County sheriff’s
Sgt. Simon Brown said.
Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for parts of unincorporated El Dorado County south of South Lake Tahoe, including Meyers and Christmas Valley.
The lifting of mandatory evacuation orders for the Tahoe area marked a milestone in the fight against the fire, which erupted on Aug. 14 and spread across nearly 340 square miles (880 square kilometers) of dense national parks and forests, tree-dotted granite cliffs and scattered cabins and hamlets in the northern Sierra Nevada.