Caples Fire has burned 2,949 acres and is 53 percent contained

10.15.19 7:00 p.m. UPDATE: Tuesday was a productive day for firefighters. The northern ridge and southwestern corner are now contained and being patrolled. The containment lines on the eastern and southwestern sides of the fire containment lines are in progress. The hand line on the south side was extended farther northeast towards Castle Point by crews using tactical firing operations. Stronger winds from the southwest are expected late Wednesday afternoon and evening with light precipitation expected Thursday morning.

400 personnel are on the scene. The fire has now burned 2,949 and is 53 percent contained.

The intent of tactical firing operations is to use low-intensity burning to remove vegetation between the containment line and the fire’s edge. This is safer for the firefighters due to the steep terrain and is also meeting the original Caples Ecological Restoration Project objectives of reducing fuel loadings, maintaining vegetation conditions that will allow fires to burn with lower intensities, and creating defensible space. Although the Caples fire is now designated a wildfire it is accomplishing our goal of promoting a healthy resilient forest by reintroducing fire to the landscape. The fire has been burning mostly as an understory burn with occasional tree torching. Most of the smoke has been from overgrown brush fields and deep duff layers.

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The Caples Fire burning southwest of Lake Tahoe has now burned 3,133 acres and is 46 percent contained as of Monday evening. The remaining terrain to control is steep, hard to access and contains rocky granite outcroppings with less vegetation. Full containment is expected by Friday.

Firefighters continued to make good progress toward full containment. On Monday crews did some firing along the ridgetops and will continue for another two days, and once they are done smoke from the fire the smoke filtering into the Lake Tahoe Basin and Carson Valley should lessen. The increase in acreage burned is a result of that tactical firing operations on the south side which eliminated pockets of unburned fuel adjacent to the fire line.

The fire started as a prescribed burn on an 8,800-acre project in the Caples Creek drainage area north of SR88 on September 30. This was ten days prior to a Red Flag Warning issued for the western slope of the Sierra. There was snow on the ground in the burn area and they had just received three inches of rain.

According to officials with Eldorado National Forest, the prescribed burn went as planned until the last four hours of the operation when winds hit and didn't die down as they were expected to in that area.

"The wind event changed plans," the Press Information Office said. "You can’t just turn off a switch when the warning comes. As soon as we learned about the weather event, we had to do tactical work and burn off a 300-foot line."

Once the red flag warning for the wind event was forecasted fire managers began building fire lines and conducting firing operations to secure and strengthen the fire perimeter before the wind arrived. The containment lines held well through the wind event into Thursday morning when the winds changed direction pushing the fire farther to the south and west and increasing the fire activity.

They worked to remove fuel from that line and make a buffer.

The fire burned within the prescribed burn area for most of the week, then crossed over that line some this week.

"The prescription was followed," they said of the Caples Fire.

When looking at what needs to be removed (understory, trees) for a healthy forest, a prescription is written and firefighters follow it. The prescription timeframe for the 6,000 to 8,000-foot elevation, which is where Caples Creek and Lake Tahoe are located, is a very short one, in the Fall before rain and snow hits.

"November is too late," said the Eldorado Forest spokesperson.

Forest officials flew over the fire area on Monday. Even though the fire fell "out of prescription" they said it actually accomplished what it was meant to do on removing large amounts of the understory. "It did what we wanted it to do," they said.

The fire "came out of prescription" on October 10 when it started burning too hot and with too much intensity. When it comes out firefighters go for full suppression and, with the change to a classification of wildfire, can bring in state and local firefighting resources to join the federal crews already on site.

Changing to a wildfire is already concerning to residents, but with the PG&E power shutdown, those residents couldn't get information about the fire and the Forest Service offices were shut down.

A quiet weather pattern Monday as the weak trough from Sunday pushes east and weak high pressure tries to build over the region. This will keep winds light through most of the day with light east winds in the morning turning light southwest/up-canyon in the afternoon hours. The lighter winds aloft will likely keep the smoke closer to the surface and less well-mixed. The moderate temperatures, humidity and winds should be favorable for firing operations though fuels remain critically dry. Winds along the southern edge of the fire should be favorable with light wind speeds allowing the fire to draw back into the burned area. For night operations the down-canyon winds will likely bring heavy smoke back over the fire with moderate humidity recovery.

Currently at the fire:

Engines: 24
Crews: 15
Water Tenders: 4
Helicopters: 4
Dozers: 2
Total Personnel: 510