Finally, a Bit of Good News Out of South Lake Tahoe

Firefighters reported progress yesterday in the battle to save communities on the south end of Lake Tahoe from the Caldor Fire after the stiff winds failed to materialize in the California-Nevada alpine region. An inversion layer, a cap of warm air over cooler air, then developed in the early morning hours.

“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,” said Tim Ernst, an operations section chief, told firefighters in a morning briefing.

That inversion layer “put a real damper on things, slowed a lot of growth,” Ernst said. “So (we had) a lot of opportunity to make a lot of progress last night. We were fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day.”

Despite the positive developments, firefighters were warned that critical weather conditions remained and they would likely face gusty, unpredictable winds all day, according to NPR. And nearly everyone is monitoring those winds, which could determine whether flames bypass the city.

The Caldor Fire has been burning toward Lake Tahoe from the southwest along California Highway 50, crossing two major freeways, climbing over a Sierra Nevada summit and descending into the Tahoe Basin, where firefighters were working in steep terrain to protect remote cabins.

Thick smoke has enveloped South Lake Tahoe, which is all but deserted at a time it would normally be packed with tourists ahead of Labor Day weekend. On Monday, roughly 22,000 residents jammed the city’s main artery for hours after they were ordered to leave. City officials said only a handful of residents defied that evacuation order. The fire has destroyed at least 700 homes and other structures, but officials say it is too early for an accurate assessment of the destruction, says NPR’s report. Caldor, which is threatening at least 33,000 more homes and structures, has scorched nearly 320 square miles since breaking out August 14. It is currently 20 percent contained and the cause is unknown.