Tahoe area readies for possible evacuation
Firefighters battle Caldor Fire and two new blazes
Jen Carter Smitt didn’t even know a new fire had sparked when she got the call to evacuate her Grass Valley apartment around 3:45 on Wednesday afternoon.
It’s been hazy for days in Sierra communities like hers, which is sandwiched between the massive Dixie Fire burning to the north and the Caldor Fire approaching Lake Tahoe to the south.
“At this point do I smell smoke? I don’t even know,” said Carter Smitt, who was watching aircraft battle the fire from her car on a nearby hillside late Wednesday afternoon.
Carter Smitt was part of a wave of mandatory evacuations hastily ordered on Wednesday by emergency officials after the Bennett Fire sparked just across the highway from downtown Grass Valley.
Two hours away in the foothills of Calaveras County, another new blaze, the Airola Fire, quickly grew to around 1,000 acres and spurred more evacuations in the Gold Country town of Vallecito. All the while, more than 2,800 fire
fighters and support personnel continued their days-long battle to keep the Caldor Fire out of the Lake Tahoe basin.
Hot, dry winds fueled fire conditions across the region, stoking anxiety about whether there would be more evacuations in bigger towns near Tahoe and Sierra communities like Murphys. But both fire officials and local leaders in impacted areas stressed that contingency plans are in place and crews are working diligently on containment plans.
“We are in lockstep,” South Lake Tahoe City Manager Joe Irvin told residents at a public meeting about the Caldor Fire. “We will have enough notice to do what we need to do if those situations should arise.”
The Caldor Fire started on Aug. 14 south of Grizzly Flats in El Dorado County and has since consumed 126,566 acres. The fire has destroyed 637 structures, including a school, two fire stations and 465 homes.
El Dorado County sheriff ’s officials were prepared to issue evacuation warnings for parts of the Tahoe basin should the fire get close to the area between Twin Bridges and Echo Summit and force mandatory evacuations there. The fire has not burned into Twin Bridges, but a warning has been issued for residents to prepare for a potential evacuation.
Kit Bailey, assistant fire chief with California’s Office of Emergency Services, said considerable resources have been unleashed on the fire, focusing on its eastern edge near Tahoe.
“They’re throwing everything they have at it,” he said during a briefing at the fire’s command center in Placerville on Wednesday morning. “They’re making progress, albeit slow, but they’ve been very deliberate.”
Highway 50, the main route from the Bay Area and Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe, remained closed indefinitely.
While manpower was focused on the Caldor Fire, the massive Dixie Fire continued burning in Plumas, Lassen, Butte, Tehama and Shasta counties, including Lassen National Park, half of which was ravaged by the flames.
The conflagration has consumed 742,724 acres during the 42 days since it started near the Feather River in Plumas County, and it has destroyed 682 homes and leveled the town of Greenville in Plumas County.
More than 5,600 firefighters were battling the Dixie Fire, which was 45% contained. Evacuation orders have been lifted in some areas and residents are being allowed to return to their homes, but more than 2,800 people still remain evacuated, many in Plumas County.
Elsewhere in Northern California, the Monument and McFarland fires are burning in the ShastaTrinity National Forest. The Monument Fire in Trinity County, west of Big Bar, has consumed 154,344 acres and was 20% contained.
The McFarland Fire, west of Platina in Shasta County, has burned 119,560 acres and was 73% contained. Evacuation orders remain in place for some areas near both fires.
By Wednesday evening aggressive air operations were winding down on the new Airola Fire in Calaveras County with the blaze still 0% contained. In Grass Valley, where things were looking better for evacuees like Carter Smitt with the Bennett Fire 60% contained and emergency orders beginning to lift, a sense of unease lingered.
“I’m just gonna be watching the plume,” Carter Smitt said. “I know which direction to evacuate if I have to.”