Sept. 3 Caldor Fire progression map. Map courtesy of Cal Fire/U.S. Forest Service
News
Caldor containment 32%
Lauren Keene
Fire crews continued their aggressive attack on the Caldor Fire’s east side Friday as residents began returning to their homes on the more controlled west side of the blaze.
Nearly at the end of its third week, the fire has burned 213,270 acres and reached 32% containment as of Friday evening, Cal Fire officials reported in a virtual community meeting detailing the status of the incident.
Jake Cagle, Cal Fire operations section chief for the fire’s east zone, said crews continue to perform structure preparation along upper and lower Echo Lake, prepare contingency lines in the Fallen Leaf Lake area while mopping up and addressing spot fires in the Christmas Valley area after flames tore through there earlier this week.
“We’re going to continue to have a presence in that area,” Cagle said. “We want to get this wrapped up so we can work on doing repopulation down the road for you.”
Additional firefighting teams are en route to the incident for deployment into the rugged Desolation Wilderness, Cagle said.
Clear air allowed aircraft to work the fire’s easternmost finger, which stretches south and east of Meyers.
Crews cut bulldozer lines adjacent to Star Lake, which Cagle said will serve “as a catcher’s mitt” should flames continue to progress.
In South Lake Tahoe proper, where a mandatory evacuation order displaced roughly 22,000 residents earlier this week, sheriff’s deputies and police offices are patrolling the city around the clock, protecting homes and scaring off bears wandering the empty streets, South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue Chief Clive Savacool said.
Meanwhile, Cal Fire officials reported additional progress on the fire’s west zone, continuing to repopulate portions of the north and west side of the fire as of Friday afternoon.
“We’ve finally turned the corner on this point,” Operations Section Chief Beale Monday said. He noted some returning residents may still see signs of smoke from smoldering stumps and snags (dead, standing trees), and crews continue to circulate through subdivisions to monitor those conditions.
“There’s not a threat to houses at this time,” Monday added.
For a current update on evacuation warning and order zones, visit fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/
Along the Highway 50 corridor, fire activity continues to present challenges in the canyon east of Pollock Pines, though flames are backed down to the river and “hopefully, in the next day or two this will be taken care of,” Monday said.
Crews also hope the next couple of days will bring progress to the Wright’s Lake area on the fire’s northern edge, which saw a heavy helicopter and aircraft presence Friday as they dropped retardant on the west-moving flames. On the ground, hand crews pulled hose into the wilderness to aid that effort.
Monday also reported improved conditions in the Kirkwood region, where flames jumped over Highway 88 earlier this week and embers jumped from tree to tree. Multiple engines, hand and hot-shot crews aim to diminish the threat to that community over the weekend.
Officials say they’re looking ahead to repopulating communities near the Amador County line. In the greater Grizzly Flat area, where the fire began Aug. 14, the wait likely will be longer.
Sgt. Eric Palmberg, public information officer for the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, said emergency operations officials are in the process of putting resources into place for cleanup work in that region, which saw a significant number of homes destroyed and damaged.
“It is going to be a little slower to populate and a little more of a significant process,” even for residents whose homes remain intact, Palmberg said.
Across the Caldor Fire damage inspection teams have tallied 886 structures destroyed and 66 more damaged since the fire began.
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