![]() Hotels are housing evacuees, fire crews and other emergency personnel. The state board that controls gaming said that casino regulators were monitoring operations at the four largest gambling properties in the city. South Lake Tahoe bustles with outdoor activities while just across the state border in Stateline, Nevada tourists can gamble at major casinos.īut on Tuesday, only a few dozen tourists remained on the casino floor of the Montbleu Resort, Casino and Spa. The Lake Tahoe area is usually a year-round recreational paradise offering beaches, water sports, hiking, ski resorts and golfing. Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jed Gaines told San Francisco television station KPIX that spraying the slopes with water was “increasing the humidity level, it’s getting everything wet” so that if the fire starts climbing “it’s able to slow it down.” But since then, nearly two dozen helicopters and three air tankers dumped thousands of gallons of water and retardant on the fire, fire spokesman Dominic Polito said.Īs flames moved toward the Heavenly ski resort on the California-Nevada border, officials turned on the mountain’s snow-making machines. Thick smoke prevented air firefighting operations periodically last week. Pushed by strong winds, the Caldor Fire has crossed two major highways and swept down slopes into the Tahoe Basin, where firefighters working in steep terrain were protecting remote cabins.Ĭal Fire Division Chief Erich Schwab said some homes burned, but it was too early to know how many. ![]() “You worry about the things you can have some control over,” O’Connell said. They didn't know if they'd be lucky again. ![]() The two-bedroom they've owned for 40 years survived the Angora Fire that destroyed about 250 houses in 2007. Tom O'Connell and his wife, Linda, awaited the fate of their home while anchored on their sailboat in Ventura Harbor. But nearly everyone worried Tuesday about what the fire would do next. South Lake Tahoe city officials said only a handful of residents defied Monday's evacuation order. On Monday, roughly 22,000 residents jammed the city’s main artery for hours after they were ordered to leave as the fire advanced. Thick smoke from the Caldor Fire has enveloped the city of South Lake Tahoe, which is all but deserted during a summer week usually bustling with tourists. “We were fortunate the fire did not make as strong a push into Tahoe as it did the previous day," Ernst said.Īt the northeast tip of the fire, south of the city of South Lake Tahoe, “we’ve got some great dozer line that protects structures here, so this whole community is looking really good right now,” he said.ĭespite the positive developments, firefighters were warned that critical weather conditions remained and they would likely face gusty, swirling winds all day. The Caldor Fire has been burning toward Lake Tahoe from the southwest along California Highway 50, climbing over a high-elevation Sierra Nevada summit and descending into the Tahoe Basin. "So a lot of opportunity to make a lot of progress last night.” “We lucked out a little bit yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected them to," Tim Ernst, an operations section chief, told firefighters in a morning briefing.Īn inversion layer, a cap of warm air over cooler air, then developed in the early morning hours “that put a real damper on things, slowed a lot of growth,” Ernst said.
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