7:41 p.m. PDT Aug. 30, 2021
The northeast and east sides of the Caldor Fire were very active again Monday. The northeast side has reached Lower Echo Lake, the community of Echo Lake, and Echo Summit. Where Highway 50 makes a 180-degree turn at the Summit it had crossed the highway twice when it was mapped by a fixed wing aircraft at 4 p.m., including two spot fires east of Echo Lake. At that time the fire was spreading south and east of the Sierra-At-Tahoe resort and also west of Nebelhorn. It was less than a mile west of Highway 89.
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Caldor Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.
The southeast side crossed Highway 88 north of Kit Carson and west of Kirkwood. There were numerous spot fires west of Tragedy Spring.
The following is part of a description of Monday’s activities from the Incident Management Team Monday afternoon:
Fire behavior increased in the northeast and eastern divisions early in the morning due to the expected southwest flow returning and poor overnight humidity recovery. The current RED FLAG WARNING has been extended to 9/1/21 ending at 23:00. Wind speeds continue to accelerate through the steep drainages resulting in gusty and erratic winds. Spotting distances have been between 0.75 and 1 mile with the Probability of Ignition at 90%. Active crown fire runs were observed in multiple divisions with rates of spread above 165 ft/min.
South Lake Tahoe is now under a mandatory evacuation order.
A detailed zoomable map showing the areas under evacuation orders is available.
10:015a.m. PDT August 30, 2021
The Caldor Fire southeast of Lake Tahoe ran to the east and northeast Sunday spreading along the Highway 50 corridor for five miles past Sierra-At-Tahoe, and Phillips. Spot fires were occurring up to a half mile ahead of the fire south of Echo Lake and Nebelhorn.
Additional evacuations were ordered. South Lake Tahoe is in evacuation warning status, meaning be prepared to immediately leave if ordered. Several areas were placed under mandatory evacuation including Meyers.
KCRA reported that the South Lake Tahoe police confirmed that Barton Memorial Hospital is being evacuated.
Reporter Craig Philpott who has been on scene for days said structures burned above Twin Bridges and between Camp Sacramento, which is south of Twin Bridges, and the Sierra Tahoe turn off.
A detailed zoomable map showing the areas under evacuation orders is available.
The fire was also very active on the southeast side, moving closer to Highway 88, Tragedy Spring, Kit Carson, and Kirkwood.
The Caldor Fire has burned 177,000 acres and is being fought by 3,684 personnel. The cause is officially under investigation. At least 472 residences and 181 other structures have been destroyed.
The fire could become even more dangerous beginning Monday afternoon. A Red Flag Warning is in effect in the area from 2 p.m. Monday until 11 p.m. Tuesday. Forecasters predict 15 to 20 mph winds gusting out of the southwest up to 35 mph with relative humidity in the teens. These conditions are expected to occur for 3 to 6 hours Monday afternoon and then 3 to 6 hours Tuesday afternoon. However, much longer durations are possible for exposed midslopes and ridges, even during the overnight period.
Mr Anon,
Sorry to hear you lost your home, truly.
As I pointed out in other threads on this forum; Firefighting and Fire prevention does not get equal treatment, attention and respect as Flooding and Flood protection nationwide. At the Federal level, the funding is over 10 to 1 for Floods versus Wildfire ($27 billion to $2.1 billion) and there is no equivalent to the National Flood Insurance Program either. There is also no equivalent wildfire grant structure that is available for floods; Louisiana received $1.2 billion in Flood Prevention grants in 2018. Also, when you have local elected Federal officials calling Wildland Firefighters “unskilled labor,” you know the respect is just not there.
Since 2001, Cal Fire’s budget has grown from $415 million to $2.6 billion due to the increase in Wildfires and associated costs. Meanwhile, fees to increase Fire Prevention via State Responsibility Fees ($150 annually) were fought and pushed back until 2031, then Firefighters were laid off, retired or could not be hired due to attrition and jumping over to private sector (PG&E?)
In El Dorado County, the following Fire Prevention ballot initiatives failed because of the 66.7% threshold for a tax increase: Measure B – $52 annually in 2020 (61.5% Yes/38.5% No), Measure A – $266 annually in 2019 (57% Yes/42% No), Measure H – $120 annually in 2014 (65.6% to 34.4%). So, the minority of voters are allowed to control initiates for Fire Prevention NOT the majority of voters, even though there was little to no opposition to the measures. Then, the Insurance Companies simple raise the premiums for home owner policies, as in double, because of the destruction and losses.
In my mind, it is a repeating Catch-22 on various levels.
I know it is not much… I wish you well.
Our log retirement home was in Grizzly Flats, 25 years of out of pocket effort, blood, sweat, sacrifice, and a lot of love. Now it’s just tears as our home is a concrete foundation full of ashes. I completely agree that firefighters and local fire departments and agencies did, are doing, and have always done the best they can. Nobody expects them to stand in front of a raging wall of flames hundreds of feet high to save homes. Like so many fire professionals have said as these behemoth fires have become a regular thing, all you can do is get out of the way. But there is blame here – the problem is way up the so called food chain. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, which governs USFS, failed to maintain their property around my (our) property. They failed to allocate the resources to maintain their land even to a level that WHEN, not if, it caught fire, there would at least be a chance to stop my house and property from burning to the ground. US Forestry management and PR have commented about “unprecedented fire behavior” and “fire acting in a way that was not predictable” – if you are making those types of comments after the fires we’ve seen over the last 10 years, then you are part of the problem. Step aside; make room for someone else who has been paying attention. I was required under El Dorado County mandate to maintain a defensible space on my property. If I failed to do so, they had the authority to make sure I complied. I was in compliance (as were all neighbors). Why was El Dorado National Forest not mandated to maintain their property to the same standard? Why did they not have available resources to contain a fire when it was initially 40 acres, then 300, 400 740, 2400 acres. Look at the USFS incident reports – why did they reduce the assigned resources on 8/16/21 from 285 in the morning to 242 in the evening. This was despite a Red Flag warning. In fact their incident reports indicate that personnel remained at 242 until the fire was 53,772 acres. A “let it burn” policy on your property is fine as long as my property does not become part of that policy. Grizzly Flats has been identified in public documents as being in danger of catastrophic wildfire for over two decades (earliest reference we can find is 2001). Much of the town and the surrounding area of EDF is now scorched earth. That means that it will likely begin to regrow as a “same-aged forest.” Same-aged forest, lots of same size, closely packed trees, burns similar to brush – fast and hot. USFS does not have resources to thin their property now. It’s unlikely that they will find those resources to thin a same-aged forest in the future. This tragedy could happen all over again. No disrespect meant to any of the residents circa Lake Tahoe – I am happy that most have homes to go back to as l know how it feels to not have one. But a case certainly could be made that if you don’t live near a famous landmark, one with a significant economic contribution, you may not see enough help early enough to save your home. You’re on your own. My “day of the log cabin in the woods” is certainly over, now and forever. To all the firefighters on the ground, you’re incredibly courageous and we’re deeply grateful. As to the folks most responsible for allowing these conditions to persist year after year, I say don’t congratulate yourselves for taming the beast as you are the very ones that allowed it out of the cage. No matter what you do, there are a lot of people that you will never make whole. Li, I hope your home survived.
Whenever human beings can get it together and cooperate with nature, instead of the almighty dollar, then there will be harmony, peace, and not innocent folks losing all they have in the wake of fire.
The real truth is the Owl and other environmental impacts for tree thinning to many politicians, lawyers and Attorneys have destroyed everything.
Whenever human beings pay attention to the lessons of nature, instead of the almighty dollar, there will be harmony, peace, and no longer devastated communities due to “unconcontrolled” wildfire. It’s just that simple.
Hi please stop being petty and stupid to each other. My house is in there. We closed escrow on the 19th. It could be so much worse for you…… I know they are doing the best they can, it’s what I have to believe. The day of the log cabin in the woods is over, it’s just over. So what else is there……This is going to happen here again.
Mr. Dogbert, the Tahoe and Eldorado forest are a patchwork of State and Federal lands. A fire starting on either agency lands is aggressively attack. There are three Dc 10s and a MD87 working the south/west side of the Calder. Visibility is probably the factor not allowing retardant drops near Tahoe. This could change anytime.
I just checked flighradar24 to see what aircraft are working Caldor. Counted 8. 7 helicopters and one tanker working the west boundary and none working near South Tahoe. I didn’t check the local fire bases.
Didn’t know the fire was confined to State forests.
Mr. A. thanks for the great write up. Its time to relax and have a cocktail. What you expressed has happened and will happen in the future “what the hell was the incident team thinking?” Annie B. you are correct, a great stop at 100 acres and 17 involved structures. Washington Fire was headed into Sonora.
Jay, Mother Nature is in charge of this fire. Regardless of the amount of equipment and personnel that could be used, this isn’t going to provide a quicker containment. Say it again, Mother Nature is in charge.
MAFFs good article and comments on this site, aviation section.
It’s Ms A, but, yeah. 😉
Why is the governor not using his power to activate all the soldiers, and the trained inmates from years past and attack this fire with a full army of land and air manpower. You cant piece meal this monster of a fire.
Exactly in the 90’s as a Miltary Liason we gave mutual support with Camp Pendleton Marines w tier 2 training National Guard driver/operators and Trucks, dozers, back hoes and 5000 gal water tankers. these now day fire experts act like this is there first big fire. A million Air Force cargo planes and only 8 MAFFES????>?>>> messed up or well planned ??
I work with firefighter inmates who can be very skilled and effective, however once they are paroled it seems unlikely that they woukd return to that work. For many the motivation is a reduced sentence in prison to be in that program. I am their physician and that is what they tell me so this is not just a theory. They work incredibly hard on these fires.
Look at how aggresively they jumped on the fire near Jamestown & Sonora last week. Those retardant planes took off out of Columbia airport and worked all day and evening to prevent catastrophic fire damage. I do not feel the same aggressive energy on this fire.
I really hate arm-chair quarterbacks. And yet here I am. I was assigned to the Caldor Fire up until a few days ago. The CalFire IMT, Team 6, NEVER took the threat to the Tahoe Basin, the east side of the fire, seriously. When they finally shifted more resources to the east side, they continued to try to go direct day after day, shift after shift, with very little success. They refused to put indirect lines in place out far enough that had a better likelihood of success with strategic burn-outs. They could not get past their mandate and egos to keep the fire as small as possible. Some of us called it “IA every day.” All you have to do is go back and watch the recorded updates and community meetings. The arrogance and refusal to acknowledge fire behavior, and the other fires that have burned with unprecedented fury, have brought us here. Some people in Ops expressed their ongoing frustration with the team and their short-sightedness. I heard countless local fire chiefs also say the fire would never reach the Basin. I’m continuously frustrated by fire professionals being “surprised” by fire behavior this year. Wake up.
Don’t blame Cal Fire, blame way back when Forest thinning projects and logging stopped due to environmentalists delaying everything to be done since 1985. US Forest Service
Curious, yet the loggers still managed to create a deforested checkerboard pattern in forests when viewed from above. Is that also USFS to blame for this policy? I wonder what the point of the checkerboard is, to save animals?
The point of the checkerboard is to avoid a massive swath of clear cut. They long one sector and leave the other to grow. And then some years later, they go back.
But remember, it’s bad for the wildlife to have logging or livestock grazing of the undergrowth, but *just fine* for the wildlife to get burned out.
“Forest thinning projects” were planned & executed back in the “timber days” leading up to 1985 to reduce inter and intra forest stand density, making way for the larger and/or more desirable species to harvest.
When they (not sure who “they” is) took away harvesting of mature species for forest management, they took away a vital tool, not to speak of the road system that would have been used to access IA on single tree lightning strikes or get crews into areas that now require long walk-ins.
Old news, Meyers had mandatory evacuation orders yesterday afternoon, Sunday 8/29. With the gusts of wind at Echo Summit and winds increasing in speed and erratic fire behavior, it will be a mean dragon to tame as far as spot fires spreading it.