Heroic Fire Crews and Wind Shift Give Reason for Hope

“Heading in the right direction, officials cautiously optimistic as Caldor Fire’s growth slows, there’s growing hope the Caldor fire won’t reach Lake Tahoe” … these were some of the upbeat headlines in major news outlets as the long and difficult week wind down. And there is cause for optimism as forecasts called for winds to significantly subside the last few days, giving firefighters a chance to make more headway and possibly get some wins under their belts.

“Over the next couple of days, we’re going to see the weather change, and we’re going to see the fire behavior slacken … to the point where we can actually get in there and do some good work,” Steve Volmer, a fire behavior analyst with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), told a community briefing.

South Lake Tahoe had appeared to be in grave danger when the week unfolded. But firefighters waged an all-out battle to save South Lake Tahoe and nearby communities including the unincorporated village of Meyers, a former trading post and Pony Express station.

By Wednesday morning, crews had “steered the fire away,” Jason Hunter, a spokesman for the Caldor incident command, told Reuters by telephone. Hunter said the wind’s direction late on Tuesday through Wednesday morning had helped push flames to the northeast rather than straight north toward Lake Tahoe, according to the Reuters report.

“There was a massive amount of heavy-equipment work and structure-protection work along those neighborhoods,” he said.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” but crews kept the fire “outside those communities and away from homes,” Cal Fire spokesman Henry Herrera told Reuters by telephone.

By the weekend, optimism continued to grow as fire crews assessed the weather forecast, indicating better days ahead for making progress on the previously elusive fire.

“This fire’s looking real good,” said Beale Monday, operations section chief of the National Incident Management Team and Cal Fire, during the Friday evening fire briefing.

As crews shared congratulatory stories and evacuees returned home, the optimism was palpable. Still, Anthony Scardina, deputy regional forester with the U.S. Forest Service, said there was a danger in getting overconfident.

“One thing we’re not going to do is oversell (success) right now,” Scardina said during a Friday afternoon media briefing. “We are not out of the woods and we’ll continue to have a firefight on our hands.”