Caldor Fire - Next couple of days are critical

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - With the weather changing over the next two days, firefighters working the Caldor Fire southwest of Lake Tahoe will have good conditions on gaining containment on the 126,000+ acre fire.

During their nightly 5:00 p.m. virtual community meeting, the incident team from Calfire and the US Forest Service updated the public on the status and current situation.

There will be decreased southerly wind flow so the fire won't have the aid from those big gusts to grow as it has over the past week. Even though the temperatures will rise and conditions will be dry, the wind won't play as big of a role.

"The weather has been favorable the last few days and everything they are doing operationally is working. They are making a good defense," said South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Clive Savacool. "We are still working on contingency plans but things are looking good for the fire not getting closer. The fire is still not an imminent threat."

There was increased fire activity on the east end of the fire today which was about seven miles west of Echo Summit Wednesday morning. The fire continued to move in a northeast direction during the day but the fire is still west of Strawberry.

Spot fires have plagued firefighters but with the wind dying down they will be less of a problem in the coming days. On Wednesday, the fire threw another spot fire across Wright's Lake Road and it's about 700 acres tonight. So far, 2,100 acres have burned on the north side of US 50.

"Ninety percent of spot fires are going to cause a fire, so crews will have to go out and mitigate," said Steve Volmer, the chief fire behavior analyst working on the fire. "There has been 3/4 to one mile spotting, but once the wind stops and slows down they will get a reprieve and we'll stop seeing the crown fire runs."

Eric Schwab, Calfire incident commander, said they had a "successful day" today. Firefighters added more backlines across the "heel" at the west end of the fire and they burned into the middle fork of the Consumnes River with its tough terrain. Large smoke columns could be seen throughout the day and Schwab said that was due to the fuels they set fire to and it was "100 percent planned and did exactly as we needed it to."

He said as they gain momentum on the west side of the Caldor Fire it will reduce the complexity of the fire that is burning in areas that have trees up to forty inches around, fallen timber and thick underbrush that is extremely dry. "Fire hasn't been in many of these areas since the 1940s," Schwab said.

Teams will start firing on the east side tonight around dozer lines in order to keep the fire from crossing. Schwab said it was critical to stop the fire from moving any further east.

"We will have a lot of resources there," Schwab said of the eastern end, or the head of the fire which now covers more ground than Lake Tahoe does.

"The next couple of days are critical," said Calfire Incident Commander Dusty Martin. "There will be technical fire operations on both west and east side so you will see smoke and equipment, all working together to bring this fire to an end. There will be opportunities for solid successes."

The incident commanders said two-to-three helicopters will be based in Kirkwood to reduce travel time from other base in Placerville.

Martin stressed the importance of everyone following their incident page (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/maps/7801/). He said the QR code on the page will lead people to sign up for daily emails with all of the updates they generate. They do updates at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. daily along with the 5:00 p.m. virtual meeting.

He also wanted to quash a rumor that has been circulating that the US Forest Service prevented Calfire from working on the fire. Martin said that was wrong, and they both responded to the fire when it started about 7:00 p.m on Saturday, August 14.

"Both agencies had resources respond from day one and we're still together," said Martin.