Caldor Fire Monday evening update: Fire now 9% contained, 114,166 acres

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The Caldor Fire is now 9 percent contained and has burned 114,166 acres since starting during the evening of August 14. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The fire was active in the early portion of the day due to the inversion layer lifting rapidly which fed the fire. As the day progressed the weather improved which allowed crews to continue building containment lines throughout various areas of the fire.

Large diameter, fire weakened timber continues to cause issues in the fire area by falling on roads. Ignitions were easily established in very receptive dry fuel beds.

During their nightly community meeting, Calfire and USFS updated the public on their work today and current plans in fighting the fire. At this time, they plan on holding the eastern end of the fire with "as big of a dozer line as they can."

While there has been some spot fires on the eastern end of the fire near Strawberry, no new evacuation warnings or orders are in place. The fire hasn't reached far enough by Silverfork to trigger more evacuation warnings.

"Things are looking good on US50 until the head of the fire (the eastern side)," said Eric Schwab, Calfire incident commander. "The spot fire from several days ago is continuing to grow to the west, but it is stopped to the north and east. It was heavily worked today."

"It is a huge priority to stop the eastern spread," said Schwab of the Lake Tahoe situation.

He said no fire has crossed to the western side of Sly Park Road which was rumored. They made progress at the heel of the fire where the containment

Calfire Chief Martin wanted to remind the public there are currently zero evacuation orders or warnings in the Lake Tahoe Basin. He did say they are working on long range planning with their partners in South Lake Tahoe but no trigger points have been met to evacuate anyone in the Basin.

"It is our goal is to keep it out of the Lake Tahoe Basin," said Martin.

The Caldor Fire is being described as a very complex fire burning in areas of very dry fuels during a historic drought in steep and hard to reach terrain. To date, 1,570,151 acres have burned in California in 2021, 42 percent over last year.

Hundreds of engines and crews have been stationed in the Strawberry area for days to perform structure preparation and building lines of defense.

Martin said the fire coming into Strawberry is a low intensity fire and not spreading with high intensity like other ends of the fire.

Fire forecaster said that the granite between Lake Tahoe and the fire helps prevent the spread of fire though some fuels exist, but nothing like the West Slope. They have more concern of spread south of US50 where there is no large rock beds and plentiful fuels.

Many during the community meeting were concerned about the historic cabins along US50 in the "mile tracts". Martin said every single cabin has had a fire engine parked in front of it as they work to pretreat the area and do all they can to defend them.

Structures Threatened: 17,488
Structures Damaged: 29
Single Residences Destroyed: 447
Commercial Properties Destroyed: 6
Other Minor Structures Destroyed: 148
Engines: 211 Water Tenders: 24 Helicopters: 19 Hand Crews: 48 Dozers: 51
Other: 0 Total Personnel: 2,051
Air Tankers: Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the State are flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow.