South Lake Tahoe Residents Cleared To Return To Properties – CBS San Francisco
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE (CBS SF) – As the containment of the massive Caldor fire tightened by the hour, the El Dorado County sheriff downgraded evacuation orders for many neighborhoods in South Lake Tahoe on Sunday to warnings, causing thousands of residents to return home houses can compete.
On Wednesday, South Lake Tahoe’s 22,000 residents were forced to evacuate their homes when a wall of flames raged over Echo Summit and descended the mountains toward the Lake Tahoe Basin. Thousands of firefighters were able to stop the advance in Christmas Valley and prevent it from crossing the city limits of South Lake Tahoe and the densely populated Pioneer Trail neighborhoods.
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Areas affected by the downgrade on Sunday included:
- South Lake Tahoe City Limits – From the Nevada State Line west along Highway 50 to Tahoe Airport; Highway 89 from town northwest to the outskirts on West Way Pioneer Trail from State Kine west to Al Tahoe Blvd.
- North of the City of South Lake Tahoe – All properties on the east (sea side) of Highway 89, which extends north from the city limits to Emerald Bay. All properties on either side of Highway 89, which extends north from Emerald Bay through Tahoma.
The sheriff said the area around Fallen Leaf Lake, Christmas Valley, Meyers and North Upper Truckee is under an evacuation warrant.
CALDOR FIRE:
By Sunday afternoon, the fire had grown to 215,400 acres and contained 43% – 8% more than Saturday afternoon.
In his briefing on Sunday morning, Tim Ernst, chief of operations for the Cal Fire West Zone, said the crews used another day of improving weather to strengthen control lines and increase containment.
“Yesterday (Saturday) we had another productive shift,” he said. “It was a bit drier with decreasing humidity, which always has an impact on the fire behavior for the day … We didn’t have any fire runs challenging us throughout the incident, we had a lot more hot spots pop up (along the western edge of the fire ) … They had no structural loss along the entire Eastern Zone (around South Lake Tahoe). You keep the scope constant. “
Giant-bladed bulldozers, crews armed with shovels, and a fleet of planes dropping hundreds of thousands of liters of water and fire retardants almost helped stop the fire from advancing.
“Things are clearly going in the right direction for us,” said Dean Gould, a manager with the US Forest Service.
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While residents will return home for Labor Day, the wildfire has dealt a heavy blow to the region’s economy, which is heavily reliant on tourism, recovering from pandemic shutdowns this summer.
“It is a huge achievement for our local businesses and the workers who rely on a steady income to pay rent and bring food to the table,” said Devin Middlebrook, South Lake Tahoe Mayor Pro tem.
He said the closure will also harm the city as it receives most of its revenue from hotel taxes and sales taxes for police and fire departments, as well as road maintenance.
Hundreds of residents were allowed to return to their homes on the west edge of the fire near Pollock Pines on Saturday.
“We brought hundreds back to their homes,” said Ernest on Saturday. “On behalf of all of these people, I want to say thank you… The incident is looking better every day. We talked yesterday about being cautiously optimistic and we are continuing in that mode. ”
The wildfire ignited near Pollock Pines on Aug. 14 and evolved into a wind-whipped conflagration that devastated the El Dorado County’s Grizzly Flats community and eventually destroyed hundreds of homes before crossing the Echo along Highway 50 Summit to the outskirts of South Lake, Tahoe marched.
Cheryl Romaine was among those evicted from their homes. She woke up at home on Saturday morning.
“We’re happy to be home again, we missed our little retreat here,” she said. “Nothing like this has ever happened to us. We only evacuated for one day during the King Fire. And that wasn’t even mandatory. But this one must have gone crazy. “
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© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report
