Caldor Fire map, east side, Sept. 6, 2021. Incident Mgt. Team.
The combination of milder weather and in some cases the fire moving into higher elevations with less fuel has allowed the 5,072 firefighters and support personnel on the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe to make increased progress in recent days. Hand crews and dozers have constructed more direct lines on the fire’s edge, stopping the spread in additional areas. The fire was mapped Sunday night at 216,358 acres, an increase of about 1,000 in the last 24 hours.
Several areas have had their mandatory evacuation orders downgraded to warnings, allowing thousands of residents to return to the city of South Lake Tahoe. El Dorado County maintains a map showing the current status of evacuations.
To see all articles about the Caldor Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
Crews have confirmed that 714 residences and 208 other structures have burned. Officials have posted a map showing structures which have been evaluated for damage.
Caldor Fire, Sept. 6, 2021
On the east side of the fire directly south of Lake Tahoe the large finger of fire east of Christmas Valley and Highway 89 that has burned more than 7,000 acres has fire line completed on the west and north sides. On the southern flank of that finger, hand crews with help from dozers are constructing direct line to keep it from moving to the south and east. They have made great progress. The perimeter of that finger is more than 20 miles, making just this section of the fire alone a huge undertaking.
A wildland fire module has been inserted into the Desolation Wilderness north of Highway 50 to help contain the northwestern corner of the East Zone. A heli-rappel module will also be inserted and additional wildland fire modules are on order for this area.
Sunday night the humidity recovery was poor, rising only into the low 20s on the slopes. On Monday the forecast calls for extremely dry air to remain over the fire area with above average temperatures and humidities in the low to mid-teens. Light winds on ridges in the morning will become westerly during the afternoon. Wednesday through Friday will bring increasing winds, 14 mph out of the west and west-southwest occasionally gusting into the low 20s, and even stronger on the weekend.
On the south side northeast of Kirkwood firefighters have made progress with dozer lines but north of Highway 88 the there is still work remaining.
Firefighters on the Caldor Fire, Aug. 22, 2021. CAL FIRE photo.
Active duty US Army soldiers receive fire training before assisting at the Dixie Fire Sept. 1, 2021. About 200 soldiers have been activated to assist with wildfires in California. InciWeb.
Two firefighters assigned to wildfires in California have died.
One of two emails sent to employees on the Stanislaus National Forest about the fatality of one of their employee/retirees said he “passed away earlier this week due to complications of COVID-19 while assigned to the French Fire near Kernville, CA. He had been hospitalized in Bakersfield.”
The person’s name has not been released by the Stanislaus, but at least three sources confirm it was Allen Johnson.
Allen Johnson. USFS.
Allen was a Forest Service retiree and was working as an Administratively Determined (AD) employee on the French Fire. The email to the forest’s staff said it’s very early in the process, but “Tentative plans for honoring Allen include a Dignified Transport of remains followed by a Memorial Service. To the best of our current knowledge, Allen’s dignified transport and Memorial Service will occur on or after September 26.”
California Interagency Incident Management Team 14 posted on Facebook Sept. 1, 2021, “Our team, the firefighting community, and the world lost a great friend, mentor, teacher and comrade last night. Retired South Central Sierra Interagency Incident Management Team IC and Liaison Officer Allen Johnson passed away from complications related to COVID 19.”
So in the absence of official information from the US Forest Service about this line of duty death, it appears from the post by his incident management team that Allen died August 31, 2021.
Saturday night NBC Bay Area reported another fatality — a US Forest Service firefighter assigned to the Dixie Fire near Susanville, California.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service told NBC Bay Area Saturday that the firefighter, an employee with the Lassen National Forest died from an illness. The official added that the firefighter’s death was not related to the fire. No other details have been released at this time.
The official information from CAL FIRE about the Dixie Fire confirms there was a first responder fatality from an illness on September 2.
UPDATE at 11:08 a.m. PDT Sept. 6, 2021: NEWS4 reported today that the US Forest Service said the firefighter that died who had been assigned to the Dixie Fire was Marcus Pacheco, an assistant fire engine operator for the Lassen NF with 30 years of fire experience. He passed away Sept. 2 from what the USFS is calling an "unspecified illness". Late at night on September 5 the Lassen National Forest created a post on Facebook announcing the two fatalities and confirming the names.
The Dixie Fire has burned more than 889,000 acres near Susanville, California and is still actively spreading.
The 25,000-acre French Fire is west of Kernville, California.
Last week a strike team of five engines with 16 firefighters on the Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe was quarantined for two weeks due to one of their members testing positive for COVID. There have been other reports of firefighters and crews sidelined, quarantined, or sickened, but specifics are hard to come by.
Two weeks ago Wildfire Today asked the five federal land management agencies for the number of their firefighters that have tested positive for COVID or had to quarantine after exposure. All five refused to release any information on the topic and would not explain their reasoning for keeping it secret. On September 2 we asked the US Forest Service again for the numbers of their firefighters who have tested positive for COVID, were hospitalized, or died. We are still waiting for the answers.
We send out our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and co-workers of the two firefighters who passed away while on duty.
(Edited to include the names of the firefighters.)
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to people who passed along this information.
Friday the wind will generally be light, but on some ridge tops will be from a different direction, east-southeast with 20 mph gusts
10:28 a.m. PDT Sept. 3, 2021
Two strike teams of engines, including 9271C, preparing for their shift on the Caldor Fire Sept. 3, 2021. CAL FIRE Amador-El Dorado Unit photo.
The Incident Management Team reports that weather on the 212,000-acre Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe continued to moderate Thursday and Thursday night with cooler temperatures in the 70’s during the day with lighter southwest winds. Fire growth was minimal, increasing by about 2,000 acres. In an indication of what kind of fire behavior they had been facing for weeks, Thursday night the Fire Behavior Analyst called it good news that the spotting distance has decreased from one mile to a half mile.
At the head of the 8,000-acre finger of fire east of Highway 89 near Trimmer Peak south of South Lake Tahoe, hotshot crews were successful in extinguishing fire around numerous hot spots. Dozers and hand crews are putting in direct and indirect line on the south side of that finger. Crews are also putting in dozer line on the north side, in some places tying it in with power line rights of way.
To see all articles about the Caldor Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
On the south side of the fire west of Kirkwood dozers and hand crews have completed a line around the south edge of the 800-acre slop over south of Highway 88, northwest of the ski area. They are installing a hose lay to keep it secure and to mop up.
Today, Friday, the inversion will break around 10 a.m. when fire behavior may begin to increase. Relative humidity is expected to be in the teens, and winds will generally be light except on ridges where they could be from the east-southeast with gusts to 20 mph. This major shift in the wind direction could test some constructed firelines in a way they have not been in recent days. Exceptionally dry fuel conditions exist in the fire area.
In a live briefing Thursday night Sept. 3 East Side Incident Commander Rocky Oplinger complimented the agencies for the fuel treatments that have been accomplished over the years. He said the 150-foot flame lengths dropped to about 15-feet when the fire entered the treated areas. This allowed hand crews and engines to take an aggressive approach to suppress the fire and prevent structure loss. The video of the briefing is on Facebook; Mr. Oplinger’s comments about the fuel treatments begin at 34:10.
The number of residences destroyed, 661, is an increase of 39 since Thursday; 196 other structures have also burned. Fire officials are maintaining a map that shows structures which have been evaluated for damage.
The movement of the Caldor Fire has slowed in recent days as the wind decreased and as portions of the fire moved into high elevations or areas where there is more granite than vegetation.
On the northeast side of the fire east of Highway 89 dozers have been building line on the north side, the flank closest to South Lake Tahoe. Night Operations Section Chief Craig Dougherty said Thursday morning a large portion of that flank now has fireline. On Wednesday and Wednesday night four structure protection groups were working in that area mopping up and securing the edge of the fire.
The south side of that large finger of fire is active with a backing fire
The fire is still about the same distance from the shore of Lake Tahoe, about 4 miles, and it is 3 miles from the Nevada state line. The head, or the far northeast area, has spread uphill above 9,000 feet, where the sub-alpine vegetation should act to slow the movement, but spotting at times keeps it moving.
Caldor Fire map, 11:13 a.m. Sept. 2, 2021.
Fire officials are maintaining a map that shows structures which have been evaluated for damage. To date, crews have confirmed that 622 residences and 189 other structures have been destroyed.
Wednesday evening 4,451 personnel were committed to the fire which was mapped Wednesday night at 210,000 acres.
Caldor Fire map, northeast side, 11:13 a.m. Sept. 2, 2021.
The fire was mapped Wednesday night at 859,000 acres
8:55 a.m. PDT Sept. 2, 2021
Map of the southeast side of the Dixie Fire, 3-D map looking northwest at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1, 2021, showing the escarpment above Highway 395. The blue areas are previous fires.
The southeast side of the Dixie Fire grew substantially to the northeast Wednesday pushed by 10 mph winds gusting up to 20 mph while the relative humidity was in the single digits. During a 7:30 mapping flight Wednesday night it was 2 miles west of Highway 395, threatening to cross the road again. There is already a 5 mile-long fire scar where it reached the highway a few weeks ago, crossing it in several places near Honey Lake south of Buntingville.
The fire is approaching the edge of the escarpment where the terrain drops rapidly 2,500 feet down to Highway 395, seen on the 3-D map above. Firefighting on that steep slope would be very difficult.
Dixie Fire map, southeast side, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1, 2021
“It’s almost to the escarpment now,” said CAL FIRE Operations Section Chief Tony Brownell. “We’ve moved a lot of engines and personnel around, we are down around 395, concentrating on structure protection. So when it does come off that hill we are going to be there to catch it and keep it out of structures the best we can.”
To see all articles on Wildfire Today about the Dixie Fire, including the most recent, click HERE.
The fire has also reached the north edge of Lake Davis eight miles north of Portola which is on Highway 70.
The extreme fire behavior witnessed Wednesday is predicted to continue due to persistent winds and dry fuel conditions — near red flag warning criteria. The forecast for Thursday is for 7 to 13 mph winds out of the west-southwest gusting late in the afternoon up to 21 mph with the relative humidity in the teens.
Dixie Fire map, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1, 2021. The blue areas are previous fires.
On the northeast side, which is still active about a mile south of Highway 44, approximately half of Lassen Volcanic National Park has burned.
The fire was mapped Wednesday night at 859,000 acres. At least 696 residences and 586 other structures have been confirmed as destroyed. Suppression costs have reached $432 million since it started near a PG&E power line July 14. Wednesday evening 4,039 personnel were committed to the incident.
Fuel treatments, Lake Tahoe area, and perimeter of the Caldor Fire Sept. 1, 2021.
For decades land managers and some residents in the Lake Tahoe area have been anticipating the Caldor Fire that has been burning since August 14. The blaze has blackened more than 204,000 acres as it rages to the northeast. It passed through the south edge of Meyers six miles south of the lakeshore and the head of the fire Wednesday morning was four miles from the lake.
Under the concept of reducing the fire threat to structures in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the US Forest Service and other organizations have been conducting hazardous fuel treatments. Since 1997, over 2,000 acres of landscape underburns and over 8,000 acres of prescribed pile burning has been completed on the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU), a division of the USFS that manages much of the land near the lake. In these areas, surface fuels have been reduced and smaller live trees thinned. The USFS says this “creates a zone where a damaging crown fire is less likely, which provides a safer environment for firefighters.”
The map above shows the fire on the morning of September 1 and completed hazardous fuel treatments. The green areas represent mechanical methods, such as thinning by hand or by using machines such as dozers or feller bunchers which can rapidly gather and cut a tree before felling it. Then the cut vegetation is piled. The purple areas represent locations where piles were burned. Some of the projects shown were completed in the last few years and others are older. This map shows very few areas (in yellow) that were treated with prescribed broadcast fire.
The USFS web page for the LTBMU politely says that budget restraints limit the number of acres that can be treated: “Increasing the annual number of acres treated with prescribed fire will challenge our future capacity.”
USFS engine crews on the initial attack of the Caldor Fire, August 14, 2021. USFS photo.
The hope is that reducing the flammable vegetation will reduce the chances of structures being destroyed when a fire like the Caldor Fire burns into the area. Thinning trees and removing brush will not stop a fire, but in a best case scenario under benign weather and fuel conditions it might reduce the intensity of the fire and the number of firebrands landing on and near structures. If a fire does dramatically slow down when entering a treated area, it may make it possible for firefighters on the ground, perhaps aided by firefighters in the air, to stop the spread. That is, unless the wind is too strong and the vegetation moisture is historically low like we have seen this summer in California. As we wrote on August 22, under these conditions, “There is no possibility of stopping the forward spread of the fire. There is no number of 747 air tankers or firefighters on the ground that could be effective against the flaming front of this raging inferno.” This will continue to be true until something changes — some combination of cooler more humid weather, less wind, and vegetation with higher moisture content — or until it runs out of fuel at high elevations or spreads into agricultural land.
The Caldor has been lofting burning embers into the air that have landed a mile ahead of the flaming front, starting new fires, called spot fires by firefighters. When that is occurring fuel reduction projects a half mile wide around a community will not necessarily keep structures from burning. We could pave the forest paradise and put up a parking lot but if a fire a mile away can ignite residences we need other solutions.
The Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) is what home owners need to concentrate on. If it is welcoming to an ember storm, then the structure could burn no matter how much forest management is done. The HIZ must be maintained so that burning embers will not start a fire on the structure or ignite nearby vegetation which creates a fire that spreads to and ignites the building.
This is called Living With Fire. We can’t stop fires from burning, but we can stop homes from igniting when the inevitable fire occurs.
The best way to prevent homes from being destroyed in a wildfire is not clear cutting or prescribed burning a forest, it is the homeowner reducing flammable material in the HIZ. This includes spacing the crowns of trees at least 18 feet apart. The envelope of the structure itself must be fire resistant, including the roof, vents, siding, doors, windows, foundation, fences, eaves, and decks. A FEMA publication (13 MB) has excellent detailed recommendations. Headwaters Economics found that the cost of building a fire-resistant home is about the same as a standard home. When implemented, Chapter 7A of the California Building Code, regulates these features.
Here is an excerpt from an article written by Jack Cohen and Dave Strohmaier:
Uncontrollable extreme wildfires are inevitable; however, by reducing home ignition potential within the Home Ignition Zone we can create ignition resistant homes and communities. Thus, community wildfire risk should be defined as a home ignition problem, not a wildfire control problem. Unfortunately, protecting communities from wildfire by reducing home ignition potential runs counter to established orthodoxy.
UPDATE September 3, 2021:
In a live briefing Sept. 3 about the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe, California, East Side Incident Commander Rocky Oplinger complimented the land owners and managers for the fuel treatments that have been accomplished over the years. He said the 150-foot flame lengths dropped to about 15-feet when the fire entered the treated areas. This allowed hand crews and engines to take an aggressive approach to suppress the fire and prevent structure loss. The video of the briefing is on Facebook; Mr. Oplinger’s comments about the fuel treatments begin at 34:10.
Four miles from South Lake Tahoe, California, and three miles from Nevada
7:57 p.m. PDT Sept. 1, 2021
Caldor Fire 3-D, northeast side, 4 p.m. Sept. 1, 2021.
A mapping flight at 4 p.m. Wednesday showed that the Caldor Fire at that time had not spread as much as it had in previous days. However there were several hours of daylight left. The blaze has also been active during the night, even creating spot fires some distance from the main fire when you would hope that every self-respecting wildfire would go to sleep as the wind is supposed to slow down and the humidity should increase. But the historically low fuel moisture is the wild card. The 100-hour and 1,000-hour time-lag fuels have no significant diurnal variation.
To see all articles about the Caldor Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
The fire is still about the same distance from the shore of Lake Tahoe, about 4 miles, and it is 3 miles from the Nevada state line. Firefighters expect the northeast side to keep moving toward north and east. The head, or the far northeast area, has spread uphill to above 9,000 feet, where the sub-alpine vegetation should act to slow the movement, but the frequent spotting keeps it moving.
Near Kirkwood on the southeast side about 800 acres have burned south of Highway 88 west of the ski area. North and northwest of the ski area the fire continues to grow north of the highway even as it moves into locations with more granite than vegetation. One large finger of fire is a half mile north of Caples Lake.
The number of confirmed residences destroyed by the fire has risen to 595 and 185 other structures. On Tuesday the numbers were 486 residences and 183 others. A map is available showing the locations that have been surveyed for structure damage.
The Red Flag Warning ends Wednesday at 11 p.m.
8:46 a.m. PDT, Sept. 1, 2021
Caldor Fire map, northeast side. Red line was the perimeter at 5:35 a.m. Sept. 1, 2021. Green line was the perimeter 20 hours earlier. The red shaded areas were hotter than other areas during the mapping flight.
These maps show the extent of the northeast side of the Caldor Fire during a mapping flight at 5:35 a.m. PDT September 1, 2021. It appears that the fire came very close to structures on Highway 89 south of Meyers.
The fire is about four miles from South Lake Tahoe.
We will post more information and additional maps later today.
Caldor Fire map, northeast side, Meyers area. Red line was the perimeter at 5:35 a.m. Sept. 1, 2021. Green line was the perimeter 20 hours earlier. The red shaded areas were hotter than other areas during the mapping flight.
6:41 p.m. PDT, August 31, 2021
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for some areas within two counties across the state line in Nevada; click for the details for Alpine and Douglas Counties. We were unable to find a usable map but there is a half-assed one at the Douglas County link for that county only. The previous very good map for the rest of the fire is still available, but it does not include the sections in Nevada. Maybe the new areas will get added. Continue reading “Caldor Fire burns across Hwy 89 near Meyers”
