SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — The Caldor Fire roared through drought-dried timber as it headed toward South Lake Tahoe Monday, reaching into the basin and forcing the city’s 22,000 residents to evacuate.

The mass exodus brought traffic to a standstill on all roads leading out of the city, and for a while residents stood outside their cars and trucks filled with suitcases and other belongings. By evening the roads were clear and South Lake Tahoe was deserted, with the glow of oncoming flame visible from the shoreline.

Late into the evening, dozens of crews were active along Highways 50 and 89 — the fire jumped Highway 89 south of the town of Meyers, just below South Lake Tahoe. They worked to extinguish the spot fires and embers being flung east with every new gust of wind.

“There are a ton of firefighters out there,” said Dominic Polito, a spokesman for Cal Fire. “Stamina, willpower, whatever you want to call it, they’re doing what they can.”

Earlier in the afternoon, flames jumped Highway 88 and were burning toward the Kirkwood ski resort. They scorched the west side of Thunder Mountain near the resort, between Silver Lake and Caples Lake, said Cal Fire assistant chief Brian Newman.

Firefighters prepared for the possibility that Caldor, fueled by fast winds and critically dry vegetation, could extend further toward South Lake Tahoe, threatening homes and businesses in the city. But crews benefited Monday by slower than expected winds in the basin, Newman said.

Just 15% of the 186,568-acre blaze was contained, Cal Fire reported Monday night. It torched more than 10,000 acres coming into Monday morning as it headed up Highway 50, breaching the summit at several locations, only the second time in state history that a wildfire burned from one side of the Sierra to the other. The first was the Dixie Fire, which started earlier this month, had burned 771,741 acres and was 48% contained.

Longtime Tahoe area resident Mel Smothers played his violin Monday while being stuck in 2 hours of eastbound evacuation traffic on Highway 50. Video: Alvin A.H. Jornada, Erika Betty Carlos

“There is fire activity in California we’ve never seen before,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter said at a briefing Monday.

Spot fires ignited over the summit near Echo Lake and below Echo Summit.

“There is fire in the basin,” the area that naturally drains into Lake Tahoe, Porter said, confirming what Lake Tahoe residents and homeowners feared for days. “It’s time to start going.”

Nearly 300 square miles of forest land has burned in the two weeks since the fire started, torching most of the town of Grizzly Flats and blackening hills for miles along Highway 50. Pollock Pines and Strawberry were largely saved.

The Caldor Fire has turned a 50-mile picturesque stretch of highway into an apocalyptic landscape of charred trees, piles of ash and twisted metal where cabins stood.

The possibility the fire could burn into South Lake Tahoe or the surrounding area seemed surreal to fleeing residents and the untold generations of visitors who spend their vacations on the slopes or at the shore.

Lisa Quick, 56, a South Lake Tahoe resident of 28 years, said fleeing her home with her family and two dogs was “horrible” and “terrifying.”

She feared what the Caldor Fire would do to her home and her community.

“I don’t just live here,” she said. “This town is part of who I am.”

Officials said the evacuation was orderly and followed a coordinated plan, and delays on roadways were not unexpected. By late afternoon, the flow out was steadier.

But not everyone hurried to the head of the line.

As dust swirled in the empty streets of South Lake Tahoe early Monday evening, Christine and William Smith seemed the only souls left in their Gardner Mountain neighborhood near the lake’s southern tip, where highways 50 and 89 meet.

They were headed out, in vehicles loaded with bikes, hitched to boats, and packed with the stuff of their lives.

“I feel like the firefighters are going to protect our neighborhood, but you just don’t know. They can’t make a miracle,” Christine Smith said.

So William Smith cleared their roof of pine needles and anything else that might catch fire, and he soaked the wood fence with water.

They would aim for Santa Cruz, where they have family, but stop first at the Crazy Good Bakery in town. They own it.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, but the fire is just over that hill,” William Smith said, gesturing toward Fallen Leaf Lake.

The Caldor fire has destroyed hundreds of homes in El Dorado County and threatened 21,000 more as it headed east toward Lake Tahoe and south toward the Amador County line.

One evacuee was Shaunte Dittmar, who fled her studio near Chistmas Valley, about 15 miles south of Lake Tahoe, with her cat Rasta. But they didn’t go far — just a bit east, up to Tahoe’s Lakeside Beach near the Nevada border.

There, blue skies and sunshine cast an idyllic glow over the open water that belied the thick blanket of gray smoke creeping closer over the mountains. Breweries and sporting-goods stores that would normally be packed with hikers, bikers and beachgoers sat empty.

This is the first time in 11 years that Dittmar has had to evacuate due to fire, but she was calm after packing up her skis and sleeping in her Subaru Sunday night.

“I mean, it’s mountain life. With everything going on, there’s no point getting all worked up,” said Dittmar, whose photography business has been upended by the pandemic.

Recently, things have been looking up as more couples have rescheduled their weddings. But now, as Dittmar debated whether to head to Nevada or the Bay Area next, she couldn’t resist the pull of the peaceful stretch of beach where she’d photographed a wedding in less complicated times.

“I just thought to come to the lake,” she said.

As the fire pushed forward 8½ miles over the weekend, officials described the growth as a “wake-up call” for what was in store this week.

The Caldor Fire burned along Highway 50 in Strawberry. The fire reached the Tahoe basin, forcing evacuation orders for South Lake Tahoe residents.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

“The firefighting conditions, the fuels, are historic,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Jeff Veik, said in a staff briefing Monday. “We will put this fire out. It’s not going to be today.”

Near the summit, Berkeley firefighters attempted to protect the City of Berkeley’s Echo Lake Camp, which has hosted families and youth camps for decades. Mayor Jesse Arreguin reported Monday afternoon that spot fires had reached the camp, and crews were forced to retreat.

“Weather conditions and the nature of this fire are dire,” he said in a social media post. “Too early to know outcome.”

While officials hoped that the blaze could be stopped before it reached Echo Summit, winds continued pushing the flames forward.

Weather conditions were expected to worsen — there’s a red flag warning in effect until 11 p.m. Wednesday, with winds pushing the fire uphill and embers lighting spot fires up to a mile ahead of the main blaze.

Should an ember land in vegetation, chances of ignition were extremely high given the parched fuels and low humidity, said Jason Hunter, a Cal Fire information officer.

Officials first issued an evacuation warning for all of South Lake Tahoe on Sunday night. Just before 10 a.m. Monday, mandatory evacuations were in place for Meyers and several parts of South Lake Tahoe. By noon, the whole city was told to empty out.

At the Tahoe Verde mobile home park on the southwest side of South Lake Tahoe, Erick Hurtado, 17, and his father, Hugo Hernandez, 34, prepared to evacuate Monday morning.

Standing in front of his home holding his white 1-year-old Chihuahua, Bun Bun, Hurtado said he was staying level-headed as they were ordered to flee.

“It’s just one of those things that, if you stay calm, it helps everyone, and you can get a plan together,” Hurtado said, adding his family planned to find safety in Nevada.

Meanwhile, Christina Ingram was in Fallon, Nev., tried to contact her grandfather, whom she believed had evacuated to the mobile home park from his home in Meyers just south of the city.

Speaking by phone, she became emotional thinking of the threat that the Caldor Fire poses to his home — and to the broader Tahoe region.

“That’s the last thing I would want, is for his house to go,” Ingram said. “It’s not just this fire. It’s been fire after fire. It feels like they can’t get a break.”

Those fleeing the blaze headed for hotels or rooms at the homes of friends or relatives. Others landed at evacuation shelters in Truckee and other communities including those in neighboring Nevada.

Nadia Beals, a 32-year-old resident of Tahoe Keys, pulled over at a gas station, hoping to refuel her pickup truck before heading to Reno. She had only a quarter tank of gas.

She tried to start the transaction, but the pump quickly canceled it. Then, for a moment, it appeared to start working, then canceled again.

Beals struggled to process the enormity of what was happening, as a steady line of evacuees inched forward. A sheriff’s deputy told her she might not be allowed back home for a week.

“I’m still trying to wake up from this nightmare,” Beals said before driving away without the gas. “It just feels so unreal.”

About two dozen people had come through a Red Cross shelter site opened Sunday night at the Veterans Hall in Truckee, with more expected Monday.

Robert Womack, Truckee emergency coordinator, said many people stopped by to ask about the status of their communities and homes, information that mostly wasn’t available yet, and continued on.

The wind, heat and smoky skies were ominous, even miles from the fire front, Womack said.

Lake Tahoe communities are familiar with wildfires, even ones that burn down lakeside, said Womack, who has lived in Truckee most of his life. But he said years past it would have been unthinkable that four major wildfires — Beckwourth, Tamarack, Dixie and the Caldor — would burn in Sierra Nevada crest communities in the span of two months.

“We’ve had fires close to the lake,” Womack said. “The idea of mega fires, fires more than 100,000 acres that we’re not able to contain or stop? It’s completely different.”

Meanwhile Meyers, which is an unincorporated community on the edge of South Lake Tahoe, was a smoky ghost town Monday after a mandatory evacuation was issued Sunday. Every business, including the Holiday Market and Meek’s Lumber and Hardware, was shuttered, with only a few empty cars sitting in parking lots. Only the faintest of treetops on the ridge nearby poked through the smoke along Highway 50.

While the town of Strawberry was largely spared over the weekend, homes and cabins along the highway burned as firefighters focused on the fire line farther up the mountain.

In nearby Stateline, Nev., casinos were shrouded in wildfire smoke, obscuring the area’s natural surroundings as a gloomy red sun rose over Lake Tahoe Monday morning. Cars streamed steadily out of town on Highway 50 as residents left South Lake Tahoe just across the California border.

Nearby, Barton Hospital in South Lake Tahoe began evacuating patients to other facilities early Monday, ahead of the mandatory orders that followed hours later, leaving only the emergency room open, officials announced on social media.

All national forests in the state will remain closed at least through Sept. 17, the U.S. Forest Service announced Monday evening.

Chronicle staff writers Nanette Asimov, John King and Omar Shaikh Rashad contributed to this report.

J.D. Morris, Lauren Hepler, Julie Johnson and Jill Tucker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com; lauren.hepler@sfchronicle.com; julie.johnson@sfchronicle.com; jtucker@sfchronicle.com

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EL DORADO NATIONAL FOREST (CBS SF) – The Caldor Fire, burning in the Sierra Nevada, has become the country’s top fire fighting priority, and the chief of Cal Fire acknowledged the potential threat to the Lake Tahoe area on Monday afternoon.

The wildfire has burned 106,562 acres, or nearly 170 square miles, in the El Dorado National Forest since it began east of Omo Ranch and south of Grizzly Flats parish on Aug. 14. A five percent containment was reported on Monday.

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Cal-Fire Thom Porter told reporters at a news conference Monday that Caldor Fire is a top priority in fire-fighting resource allocation because of its proximity to Tahoe.

“It’s so important,” he said. “There is a knock on the door to the Lake Tahoe Basin. We have made every effort to keep it out of the pool, but we also need to be aware that it is possible because of the way the fires burned. “

Firefighters tackle flames during the Caldor Fire in Kyburz, California, the United States, on Saturday, August 21, 2021. (David Odisho / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After a week of no containment, fire officials reported five percent containment on Monday, and further containment is expected later in the day, particularly along the south edge of the fire.

At a press conference for the California governor’s Office of Emergency Services Monday afternoon, officials announced that two Galt police officers were seriously injured in a head-on collision on Highway 99 early Sunday morning while trying to help in the Caldor Fire. Two other civilians were injured in the fire last week.

As of Monday, at least 403 homes had been destroyed by the fire and more than 17,000 homes and other buildings were threatened. Six commercial properties were destroyed along with 148 other smaller structures, Cal Fire said. The cause has not yet been clarified.

Downhill winds, low temperatures, and moderate overnight humidity helped slow the fire from spreading.

Operations chief Tim Ernst said Monday the toughest area of ​​the fire continues to be around where it originated, with the flames continuing to storm towards Grizzly Flats, where dozens of homes were burned in the wildfire last week.

“To solve this problem, we are installing a lot of emergency lines and bulldozers, and last night we did a long fire operation to remove some of the fuel from the fire,” said Ernst. “But the fire continues to challenge us in this area.”

A firefighter prepares to fight an active fire on a hilltop during the Caldor Fire in Kyburz, Calif., Sunday, August 22, 2021. (David Odisho / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After jumping on US Highway 50 over the weekend, Ernst said there was no extensive fire growth past Highway 50 overnight and the crews on the northern edge of the fire were busy with extensive building defense and preparation.

On the western edge, a significant amount of work has been done around the Jenkinson Reservoir and Sly Park area to connect the existing fire lines, Ernst said. The eastern tip of the fire continues to be a challenge, as daily winds from the southwest push the fire in an easterly direction.

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More of the southern perimeter was expected to be contained later Monday.

Melissa Gustafson was among the residents of the area who were forced to flee their home. She and her family of seven had to leave their room at the Best Western in Placerville that weekend and stay with relatives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her bill was several hundred dollars and it was paid by a good Samaritan.

“A lady behind me (in the checkout line) was (with) Cal Fire and told me she would take my bill for me,” said Gustafson, fighting back tears. “I was just so happy! We have nothing. What do you do when you have nothing? “

CALDOR FIRE: Information on incidents, evacuations, maps

Current mandatory evacuations include:

• Grizzly Flats: The areas on Grizzly Flats Road east of Kendra Way in Grizzly Flats Proper. The Diamond Railroad Grade, Old School House, Sweeney Road, Caldor Road, and Steely Ridge areas.
• Grizzly Flats Road east of Four Corners in Somerset in Grizzly Flats Proper.
• The areas of Myers Lane, Varmet Ridge Road, Rodwell Canyon Road, Snowbird Lane, and Mehwald Lane.
• East of Sly Park Road between Highway 50 and the Mormon Emigrant Trail to Ice House Road. These include the Pacific House and Fresh Pond communities.
• North of Highway 50, east of Forebay Road to Ice House Road.
• Junction of Perry Creek and Hawk Haven, the east side of Fairplay Road from Perry Creek South to Cedarville Road. These include Slug Gulch, Omo Ranch, and all roads away from Slug Gulch and Omo Ranch.
• All streets of Omo Ranch from Cedarville Road to Hwy 88.
• The area between Highway 88 and the Mormon Emigrant Trail
• South of Highway 50 from Snows Road to Ice House Road.
• Between Highway 50 and Slab Creek from Snows Road to Ice House Road.
• South of Highway 50 from Ice House Road to Silver Fork Road. This also includes the community of Kyburz.
• North of Highway 50 from Ice House Road to Silver Fork Road with the Ice House Reservoir, Union Valley Reservoir and Loon Lake.
• Silver Fork Road in Kyburz east to Twin Bridges.
• North and south in a line extending from Twin Bridges to the Placer County Line and south to the Amador County Line.
• Areas south of Farnham Ridge Road and east of Bridgeport School Road to the Amador County Line.

REMINDER: Highway 50 remains closed between Sly Park and Meyers due to #CaldorFire. Listen to your local authorities and know alternative routes. Check @ CaltransDist3 for the latest updates. https://t.co/uvpiHqQn5n pic.twitter.com/hjreey5n6p

– Cal JA (@Cal_OES) August 23, 2021

Evacuations Warnings for El Dorado County and Amador County along with Road closures You will find here.

The Caldor Fire, along with other forest fires in Northern California, has caused the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest region to temporarily close nine National Forests. From Sunday, August 21st, these parks and the streets and paths in them will be closed to visitors until September 6th.

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