Caldor Fire bearing down on Lake Tahoe
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A California fire that gutted hundreds of homes advanced toward Lake Tahoe on Wednesday as thousands of firefighters tried to box in the flames and tourists who hoped to boat or swim found themselves looking at thick yellow haze instead of alpine scenery.
The Caldor Fire was less than 20 miles southwest of the lake that straddles the California-nevada state line. The fire was eating its way through rugged timberlands and was “knocking on the door” of the Lake Tahoe basin, California’s state fire chief Thom Porter warned this week.
Ash rained down on Tuesday and tourists ducked into cafes, shops and casinos on Lake Tahoe Boulevard for a respite from the unhealthy air.
Climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
Although there were no evacuations ordered for Lake Tahoe, it was impossible to ignore a blanket of haze so thick and vast that it closed schools for a second day in Reno, Nevada, which is about 60 miles from the fire.
The school district that includes Reno reopened most schools on Wednesday, citing improved air quality conditions. However, the Washoe County School District’s schools in Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe remained closed, the district said in a statement.
The last major blaze in the area during the summer of 2007 took South Lake Tahoe by surprise after blowing up from an illegal campfire. The Angora Fire burned less than 5 square miles but destroyed 254 homes, injured three people and forced 2,000 people to flee.
The Caldor fire has scorched more than 190 square miles and destroyed at least 455 homes since Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada southwest of the lake. It was 11% contained and threatened more than 17,000 structures.
The western side of the blaze continued to threaten more than a dozen small communities and wineries. On the fire’s eastern side, crews bulldozed fire lines, opened up narrow logging roads and cleared ridgetops in hopes of stopping its advance, fire officials said.