Caldor Fire threatens Lake Tahoe Basin

brianlux

It's been a rough month here in the west with fires raging much earlier and stronger than normal.  The latest threat is the Caldor Fire as it approaches beautiful Lake Tahoe.  The fire is now the #1 fire concern in the U.S.  Containment on the west side of the fire near us has been fairly good (although we are only 5 miles from mandatory evacuation areas), but on the east side, there is much concern that it could work it's way over into the Tahoe basin. The next two days are extremely critical as Monday may be seeing red flag warnings that could bring eastward winds pushing the fire closer to Tahoe.  This has already been a disaster as a huge portion of the El Dorado National forest has been devastated, and it could get much worse.  

Add to all that the terrible air quality in this area.  Visibility from smoke here was down to about 50 yards yesterday with Air Quality Index reading as high as 1216 (around 700 today and anything over 300 is considered hazardous). 

https://www.kcra.com/article/with-caldor-fire-threatening-lake-tahoe-prepares-for-emergency/37419315#

Loujoe

Man that stinks. Be safe Brian.

brianlux

Loujoe said:

Man that stinks. Be safe Brian.

Thanks, Lou. 

I'm guardedly confident the fire won't reach us, but the devastation we are seeing to the area, the people we know who have lost their homes, the tens of thousands of people in our area who have been displaced, the huge loss of forest and wildlife, breathing horrible air day and night, and the ongoing danger- it is all overwhelming and depressing.  But we are hanging in there.

Purple Fairy Tree

Sorry to hear that @brianlux

brianlux

West Coast Dreamgirl said:

Sorry to hear that @brianlux

Thank you, Dreamgirl. :-)

We're in a touchy situation but it is so much worse for those who have lost their home and those who live close to the fire.  We have friends whose homes are so very much in danger now.  I worry for them.

Yesterday, I was at our Raley's grocery store which has a large parking lot due to the fair grounds being next to it, and it looked like a command center for a war zone.  There were lots of portable offices and equipment containers, and fire trucks and fire fighters from far and wide.  It's amazing how what a huge team of fire personnel have been brought in.  Seeing that made it all the more clear how big the threat of this fire is to Tahoe.  

brianlux

Evacuation orders were placed for parts of South Tahoe today.

https://southtahoenow.com/story/08/29/2021/evacuation-orders-now-lake-tahoe-basin

bootlegger10

Crazy.  Hope they can get this thing in check.

It sounds like the Forest Service needs to do some controlled burns.  Brings risk but their current strategy is failing miserably.   

brianlux

bootlegger10 said:

Crazy.  Hope they can get this thing in check.

It sounds like the Forest Service needs to do some controlled burns.  Brings risk but their current strategy is failing miserably.   

Absolutely.  The US Forest Service does do some control burning but for the El Dorado National Forest, it has been too little, too late.  What is happening here locally, as well as throughout the west, is a disaster formed through a combination of factors including too many years of suppressing natural fires which would have kept fuel and fire ladders down, mismanagement of priorities, overpopulation, and, of course, climate change.  The cost of fighting these massive fires is FAR more than extensive than control burning costs.

"We could have saved the planet, but we were too damn cheap."  -Kurt Vonnegut

When I saw the Caldor Fire update last night, I just lost it.  So much forest, so many great places we've been on hikes, so much beauty, so much nature, so much wildlife, all gone.  This very large forest (and others in the west) will never be the beautiful places they were for many years.  I will not see El Dorado Forest as a mature forest again in my lifetime. And now the fire is at the doorstep of the beautiful Lake Tahoe basin.

And how are all these forest fires going to impact things on a more broad scale?  We know that planting more trees helps combat global warming.  But we are on track this year to beat last year's 4 plus million acres of forest fires.  Even if we only tie that acreage, how many trees are lost in 8 million acres of forest?  How many trees will we lose throughout the west this year alone?  Can we plant enough trees to make up for that loss?  And it takes 30 to 40 years of growth for a tree to reach full potential for carbon storage, so we need to get to work, fast.  

brianlux

This is not going well.  Live updates here:

https://www.kcra.com/article/caldor-fire-el-dorado-county-aug-30-evacuations-tahoe-warning/37432247

brianlux

Today's update on The Look Out has some exceptional graphics that illustrate the tremendous challenges our heroic fire fighters are facing in order to save South Lake Tahoe.

https://the-lookout.org/2021/08/31/caldor-fire-8-31-2021/

PureandEasy

I can't relate, I live on the East Coast and wildfires have never been an issue for me.  However, I do watch the news and the images are horrific.  I have been to Lake Tahoe, and I long to go back.  The fires on the West Coast are just devastating, God bless the firefighters battling them and God bless the people who are in the path of destruction.

brianlux

PureandEasy said:

I can't relate, I live on the East Coast and wildfires have never been an issue for me.  However, I do watch the news and the images are horrific.  I have been to Lake Tahoe, and I long to go back.  The fires on the West Coast are just devastating, God bless the firefighters battling them and God bless the people who are in the path of destruction.

Yeah, when I lived back in western New York State for a couple of years it rained in the summer there and I thought, "Oh wow!  No four to six month drought!"  And everything was green except in the winter and that was beautiful too.

Nice words from you for our brave firefighters and the fire evacuees.   

F Me In The Brain

This is so awful.  Such a beautiful part of our country.  
Hoping conditions improve, some, to help all involved.

brianlux

Arrests made and charges filed:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-09/california-caldor-fire-charges-for-father-and-son

A criminal complaint filed Thursday formalized the charges against both men.

Travis Smith faces one count each of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, recklessly causing fire to an inhabited structure, recklessly causing a fire of a structure or forest land, converting a firearm into a machine gun or knowingly manufacturing a machine gun, and possession of a silencer.

All five counts are felonies. Prosecutors are also seeking four enhancements on the first three counts:

• That a firefighter, peace officer or other emergency personnel suffered great bodily injury as a result of the offense.
• That the defendants proximately caused great bodily injury to more than one victim in a single violation.
• That the defendants proximately caused multiple structures to burn in a single violation.
• That the offense was committed during and within an area under a state of emergency proclaimed by the governor due to drought conditions.