Wildfire forces thousands at popular Lake Tahoe resort

A popular vacation paradise normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists was crowded with fleeing vehicles on Monday after the entire resort town of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to leave as a fierce wildfire raged to Lake Tahoe, a sparkling gem on the California-Nevada border. .

Vehicles loaded with bicycles and camping gear and transport boats were in circulation in the city of 22,000 people, propped up in the hazy, brown air that smelled of a campfire. Police and other emergency vehicles were rushing past.

Ken Breslin was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic less than a mile from his home, with only a quarter of a tank of gas in his Ford Escape. His son begged him to leave on Sunday night, but he shrugged his shoulders, certain that if an evacuation order came, it would be later in the week.

“Before, it was ‘No worries… it’s not going to go up the peak. It is not going to go down the hill. There are 3,500 firefighters, all these bulldozers and all the air support,'” he said. declared. “Until this morning, I didn’t think there was a chance he could get into this area. Now it’s very real.”

As of Monday evening, the blaze had crossed National Highways 50 and 89 and burned down mountain cabins as it hurtled down the slopes toward the Tahoe Basin.

Monday’s new evacuation orders, unprecedented in the city, came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were ordered to evacuate as the Caldor fire raged nearby . South Lake Tahoe’s main medical facility, Barton Memorial Hospital, has proactively evacuated dozens of patients, and the El Dorado Sheriff’s Office has transferred inmates to a nearby jail.

“There is fire activity in California that we have never seen before. The key thing for the public to know is to evacuate early,” said Chief Thom Porter, director of the California Department of Forestry and Conservation. fire protection, or Cal Fire. “For the rest of you in California: Every acre can burn, and will burn someday in this state.”

The threat of fire is so widespread that the US Forest Service announced Monday that all of California’s national forests will be closed until September 17.

“We are not taking this decision lightly but it is the best choice for public safety,” said Jennifer Eberlien, regional forester.

Overnight, the already massive Caldor fire spread 7 miles towards one area northeast of Highway 50 and over 8 miles into another, officials said. Cal Fire.

More than 15,000 firefighters were fighting dozens of fires in California, including teams from Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Emergency Services Bureau. About 250 active-duty soldiers were trained in Washington State to help with the arduous work of manually clearing forest debris.

Louisiana crews, however, had to return to that state because of Hurricane Ida, “another major catastrophic event unfolding in the country that is drawing resources across the United States,” he said. declared.

Porter said that only twice in California history have fires burned from one side of the Sierra Nevada to the other this month, along with the Caldor and Dixie Fires. The Dixie, the second largest wildfire in state history at 1,205 square miles (3,121 square kilometers) about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of the Lake Tahoe area fire, triggered new evacuation orders and warnings on Monday.

The Lake Tahoe region in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is generally a year-round recreational haven offering beaches, water sports, hiking, ski resorts, and golf. South Lake Tahoe, at the south end of the lake, is full of outdoor activities and casinos available on the Stateline, Nevada border.

On weekends, the city’s population can easily triple and on holiday weekends, such as the upcoming Labor Day weekend, up to 100,000 people will visit for fun and sunshine. But South Lake Tahoe City Mayor Tamara Wallace said they have been telling people for days to stay away due to poor air quality from wildfires.

She said she thought Caldor’s fire would stay away. The fires of the past did not spread so quickly near the tourist town.

“This is just another example of how wildfires have changed over the years,” she said as she gathered treasures passed down from her deceased parents and those of her husband as they were getting ready to leave.

The last two wildfires to ravage populated areas near Tahoe were the Angora fire which destroyed more than 200 homes in 2007 and the 2002 gondola fire which ignited near a chairlift. at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Since then, dead trees have piled up and the area has faced severe droughts, Wallace said. Climate change has made the West much hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and forest fires more frequent and destructive, scientists say.

Wallace said traffic was crawling on Monday, but hailed the evacuation as orderly because residents heeded authorities’ orders. Authorities have also been more aggressive in recent years, issuing warnings and orders earlier so people have more time to flee.

Not everyone agreed as high winds blew up dust and debris and drivers sat in traffic jams. The California Highway Patrol added “a lot of extra staff” to help guide a chaotic evacuation of South Lake Tahoe as massive traffic jams slowed the evacuation of vehicles, said CHP Deputy Commissioner Ryan Okashima. The congestion eased Monday afternoon.

John Larson, a resident of South Lake Tahoe, said the evacuation likely went as smoothly as possible, given how quickly the flames moved through the area.

“The fuel went so fast and it climbed the ridge so fast,” Larson said of the fire after moving into an evacuation center in a park in Carson City, Nevada. Red Cross volunteers set up the facility with 50 camp beds after another evacuation center in nearby Gardnerville reached capacity.

The fire destroyed several homes on Sunday along Highway 50, one of the main roads leading to the southern end of the lake. He also roared through the Sierra-at-Tahoe Ski Resort, demolishing some buildings but leaving the main buildings at the base intact. The teams used snow machines to water the ground.

Cottages have burned down near the unincorporated community of Echo Lake, where Tom Fashinell has operated Echo Chalet with his wife since 1984. The summer-only resort offers cottage rentals, but has been ordered to close early for the next day. season by the US Forest Service due to ongoing forest fires. .

Fashinell said he was glued to local television news. “We are watching to see if the building survives,” he said.

The Caldor Fire has burned 277 square miles (717 square kilometers) since it started on August 14. After the violent fires over the weekend, confinement fell from 19% to 14%. More than 600 structures have been destroyed and at least 20,000 others have been threatened. Gov. Steve Sisolak declared a state of emergency in Nevada on Monday, citing “anticipation” that the wildfire in California’s Lake Tahoe area would cross the state border into the state of Silver.

The National Weather Service has warned of dangerous fire conditions and winds until Wednesday.

Diane Kinney, who has lived in the city since the 1970s, said it was the first time her neighborhood had been ordered to evacuate. She and her husband were packing souvenirs, jewelry, and insurance papers shortly after noon. They had to leave their 1964 Chevelle, but she hopes it stays safe.

“Everyone wants to live in Lake Tahoe. There are definitely benefits to being in the mountains, to being with these beautiful pines,” she said. “But we absolutely have to get out now.”