firefighting

The Slinkard Fire is currently located on the west slope of Antelope Valley, west of Topaz Lake and eight miles north of Walker, Calif. After being started by lightning on August 29, it has burned through cheat grass, sagebrush and pinyon/juniper.

418 firefighting crew members are working the fire which is located in Alpine and Mono counties in California and Douglas County in Nevada.

8:45 p.m. update: Firefighters on the Preacher Fire have gained ground on the fire and have been able to get it 20 percent contained. It was actively burning all day with single tree torching, creeping, and wind-driven runs. The total burned remains at 4,651 acres.

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4:45 p.m. update: Acreage burned in the Preacher Fire is a lot less than previously reported due to a glitch in mapping. The fire, which started Monday with a lightning strike, has burned 4,651 acres.

The Detwiler Fire near Mariposa, Calif. has grown to 19,600 acres this evening, prompting evacuation of the town as well as surrounding areas near Highways 49 and 140.

The fire remains at fiver percent contained.

At this time, one structure has been destroyed and one damaged, and 300 other buildings are threatened. 780 firefighting personnel are at the scene which is west of Yosemite and east of Lake McClure. Nine airtankers, 100 engines, 5 helicopters, 9 dozers and 4 water tenders are being used on the fire.

Two Bombardier CL415 firefighting aircraft have returned to South Lake Tahoe for their third summer, using the airport as a base once again to fight fires across the nation.

In 2015 the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) got the aircraft on a five year contract to use at their disposal. They can be used around Lake Tahoe or sent to other states, depending on the need.

Igniting on June 24, 2007, the Angora Fire rapidly spread to over 3,100 acres, destroying 254 homes, 75 commercial structures and resulting in more than $141 million in damages. In response to this disaster, an Emergency California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission was formed to conduct a comprehensive review of the laws, policies and practices that affect the vulnerability of the Tahoe Basin to wildfires.

With one of the biggest winters we have experienced in years and the snowpack level at 200-300 percent of normal, it is expected that the excessive precipitation will likely push the start of the 2017 fire season back a couple months.

“Below normal significant wildland fire potential is expected to develop across northern portions of the Great Basin and far western Nevada in May and June,” reports the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

However, the low risk scenario will not last forever once the moisture is gone.

Lake Valley Volunteer Firefighter’s Association held its 55th annual Fire Fighters Ball on March 10, 2017. The Ball was given a new theme this year as the fire fighters hosted a sold out elegant event at the Edgewood Tahoe which included fine dining, a presentation by Lake Valley FD Honor Guard, auctioning of firefighters skills such as yard cleanup, car detailing to name a few, an ongoing silent auction packed with dozens of items that were so generously donated to Lake Valley by our community and live music and dancing.

Nicholas Martin Coberley, 45, of Pollock Pines, will be spending the next 27 months in prison for assault with a deadly weapon on a park ranger.

10/16/16 update 7:00PM - The Little Valley Fire is holding at 3,400 acres with 55 percent containment. 667 personnel remain on the incident. More rain forecast tonight which will aid in extinguishing the fire which started on Friday.

22 residences and 17-outbuildings were destroyed with 480 homes saved in the direct vicinity of the fire. Multiple structures remain under threat until 100-percent containment has been achieved.

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10:00PM update - Current acreage burned in the Little Valley Fire has been revised at 3,400 acres with 20 percent containment this evening.

I was invited to take part in training with South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue in the demonstration fire trailer on Tuesday, an experience I won't soon forget, even though the temperatures I experienced were far below that of a real fire.

As I put on my fire pants, jacket, boots and head gear, my respect for firefighters instantly grew (even though it was already high on the scale). The heavy clothing protected my skin and clothing as I was exposed to 500 degrees, something most of us will never feel.

5:00 p.m. update: A small fire that broke out west of the Heavenly Gondola Sunday afternoon has been contained. CalFire will remain at the scene for mop up operations.

An area about 40 feet by 25 feet burned before fire fighters responded and put it out. The original call came in at 3:56 p.m.

Montreal Road in South Lake Tahoe, previously closed to allow fire fighters to get into the area, has been reopened. The gondola had also been shut down for a short time as a safety measure.

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The victim in the August 7 fire in Incline Village has been identified as a 19-year-old man about to start his sophomore year at San Francisco State.

The fires responsible for sending smoke into the Lake Tahoe Basin and Northern Nevada have burned 47,876 acres since being started by lightning strikes on Friday morning.

Known as the Virginia Mountains Complex, the five separate wildland fires include the Anderson (13,196 acres), Sage (4,238 acres), Seven Lakes (3,063 acres), Rock (2,293 acres) and Tule (27,379 acres) Fires. All are burning on mostly BLM land within about 20 miles of each other in an arc about 35 miles north of Reno.

Last summer, South Lake Tahoe was one of the home bases for two Bombardier CL415 firefighting aircraft known as "Super Scoopers," and as of this weekend, they are back again.

The two planes are part of national firefighting efforts, so can be moved at any time depending on needs. They arrived from fighting fires in Alaska, and find the Lake Tahoe area a good base since close to areas susceptible to fire. They are prioritized on a daily basis by the National Interagency Fire Center.

8:30 p.m. update 7/4/16: Firefighters working on the Trailhead Fire in El Dorado County gained a lot of ground Monday, getting a containment line around 50 percent of the fire. So far, 5,444 acres have burned.

5/4/16 11:00 a.m. update: The fire that swept through a Tahoe Keys condo complext on Tuesday caused an estimated $3 million in damage. Seven of the units suffered significant damage and a few other units in the surrounding condominiums have had some water and/or smoke damage. Firefighters arrived after receiving the 1:48 p.m. 911 call, and the fire was contained at approximately 4:10 p.m. Fire fighting personnel remained on the scene until 9:00 p.m.

It has been about 18 months since the Cal Tahoe JPA voted to spend $192,000 on badly needed EKG monitors for the nine ambulances that serve the South Lake Tahoe and Meyers area. As of March 31, not a dime has been spent due to a division between the two fire departments that are part of the JPA.

"I don't want public safety to get in the way of politics," said SLT City Councilman Tom Davis at Thursday's emergency JPA meeting. Davis is one of two Council representatives on the JPA board. The other is Mayor Wendy David.

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz of Antique Archeology and stars of the television series American Pickers are traveling throughout California to film episodes for their hit show. The team be in the area in March to film episodes.

In a move that will save the city money as well as increase staffing, South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue added 12 new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) specialists to their staff on December 14.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue is now the only fire department in the Tahoe basin to have three firefighters on each engine at all times and two EMS specialists in the ambulance.

The three "Super Scoopers" that called South lake Tahoe home this summer left the airport on Tuesday, October 20. One plane is still under contract with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and headed to Oklahoma for the winter while the other two Bombardier CL415 firefighting plans are now off contract with the USFS and flew off to unknown destinations.

The company that owns the planes, Aero-Flite, Inc is located in Spokane, Wash.

8 p.m. update 8/18/15:

The Walker Fire has now burned 3,715 acres and is now 35% contained. It has been determined that the fire is human caused and is under investigation.

There are 484 firefighters working on the fire along with 4 helicopters, 2 Air tankers, 34 Engines, 10 Crews, 6 Water Tenders, and 4 Dozers.

235 structures remain threatened but none have burned so far.

Smokey Bear visited the new Forest Service firefighting aircraft "Super Scooper" at the Lake Tahoe Airport.

During the Kyburz Fire last week, the new addition to the Forest Service was able to drop 36,000 gallons of water at the front line of the fire, helping to keep it under 75 acres.

Each drop of the plane puts 1,600 gallons of water on the fire. The first load for the Kyburz Fire came out of Lake Tahoe, and the rest were from Union Valley Reservoir which was closest to the fire.

Kyburz Fire 667 personnel. Lowell Fire 771 personnel. Washington Fire 1,113 personnel.

These recent fires in the forests near Lake Tahoe have had hundreds of fire fighters on the ground, digging fire lines, cutting down trees and putting out fires. It's not an easy job, the hours are sometimes endless or never enough. But those that do it, love it.

The U.S. Forest Service has been training the next front line of defense against forest fires.

The Kyburz Fire is burning about 25 miles west of South Lake Tahoe. It has burned both sides of Highway 50 near and around the American River. It started on Highway 50 near Whitehall.

10 a.m. update 7/27/15:

The Sand Flat Campground has reopened as firefighters can almost total control of the fire lines. They now have 98% of the fire contained.

An updated infrared look at the scene has again reduced the amount burned to 75 acres.

They will not be updating the fire command website after Tuesday as they transfer o a forest Type 4 organization.