It’s Getting Serious Out There…

For the last couple of summer seasons, we’ve been mentioning the extreme fire danger in the Tahoe area. This year, we started off the summer drier than ever. As we speak, 1/4 of the Lake Tahoe basin is under a mandatory evacuation order, including much of the City of South Lake Tahoe, due to the Caldor Fire burning in the El Dorado National Forest and Desolation Wilderness. That’s an incredible number of people that are, hopefully, attempting to leave the area.

As of Monday afternoon, the mandatory evacuations stretch from the state line at South Shore to Tahoma on the west shore. To the south, Highways 50, 89 and 88 are all closed. That leaves just Highway 50 to the east, Kingsbury Grade and the east shore routes for those leaving South Lake. Highway 89 north is currently clogged with people leaving the west shore area. We probably don’t have to tell you about how bad the traffic is today.

One bright spot to report is that the Sierra At Tahoe Ski Resort seems to have dodged the bullet this time. As is typical, snowmaking guns were aimed at the base lodge area and other important structures to keep them from burning. With the addition of a ton of work by firefighters and resort workers, damage seems to be mostly limited to just trees and signage. Hopefully that is the worst of it for Sierra At Tahoe.

Updated: At the Sierra-At-Tahoe resort, one structure was lost; it was a utility garage housing unknown equipment. Unfortunately just about all of the homes near the entrance of resort were destroyed.

Looking at the way the fire is moving, Heavenly Valley and Kirkwood also could be impacted by the Caldor Fire as well. At this time, there seems to be a chance that Homewood, Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley could stay out of harms way…this time. Worrying about ski season right now is probably the last thing on many people’s minds.

The conventional wisdom is that much of Tahoe would be safe from these major fires due to the large amount of granite along the crest of the Sierra, which means that the trees and other flammable materials are more spread out. Unfortunately, all of those old thoughts about how fires work has gone out the window over the last few years. Last month, the Dixie Fire became the first modern fire to burn pretty much across the range, from the foothills in the west to the desert in the east. (Yes, technically that is the southern end of the Cascade range, not the Sierra.) It looks like the Caldor Fire could do the same by next week.

Our thoughts are with everyone that needs to evacuate for the Caldor as it moves into the Tahoe Basin. Please don’t think this is the one you can fight on your own with a garden hose and your sprinklers. If you’re in a mandatory evacuation area, leave as soon as possible. It’s quite possible that the evacuation areas could increase as time goes on, and even more people are trying to get out. Be safe out there.