Weather slows wildfire, but flames keep moving

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE >> Favorable weather helped firefighters trying to save communities on the south end of Lake Tahoe from an approaching wildfire, but officials warned Wednesday that stiff winds and dry conditions mean that homes in the California-Nevada alpine region are still in danger.

“We lucked out a little bit yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected them to,” Tim Ernst, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told firefighters in a briefing.

“We were fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day.”

Crews tried desperately to keep flames away from urban communities, where houses are close together and shopping centers, hotels and other structures would provide even more fuel for a fire that so far has been feeding on trees, grasses and scattered homes and cabins.