Caldor Fire Wednesday Update: 204,390 acres burned and 20% contained

Submitted by paula on Wed, 09/01/2021 - 8:06am
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The Caldor Fire remained very active overnight due to the extremely poor humidity recovery and warm temperatures to the west of the Tahoe Basin. Spotting continued to occur with spots being found up to .5 miles away from the edge of the fire. The fire continued to back down towards the US50 corridor from Ice House Road to Strawberry with slow rates of spread. Today
firefighters will face more dry conditions and strong winds with gusts up to 35-40 mph in some areas. The current red flag warning remains in effect through 11:00 p.m. tonight. There are no reports of loss of structures in Meyers, Christmas Valley or South Lake Tahoe at this time and the fire has not entered the City of South Lake Tahoe.

All evacuation orders and warnings remain in effect for the South Shore, Alpine and Douglas counties.

Electricity

Liberty Utilities has been part of the incident command discussions since the Caldor Fire started heading to Lake Tahoe as they supply power to the South Shore starting at Echo Summit. They de-energized 3,489 Christmas Valley and Meyers customers as the direction of CalFire for the safety of firefighters. They are able to shut down power at their request and pinpoint as best they can to the exact area needed. When inspections are completed on lines and poles as fire goes through an area, or if the shutdown was just precautionary, they can re-energize the targeted areas when safe to do so.

The Numbers

Size: 204,390 acres
Containment: 20%
Civilian Injuries: 2
First Responder Injuries: 3
Structures Threatened: 34,834
Single Residences Threatened: 29,000
Multiple residences Threatened: 4,681
Businesses Threatened: 1,153
Structures Damaged: 43
Single Residences Destroyed: 544
Commercial Properties Destroyed: 12
Other Minor Structures Destroyed: 173
Evacuated: 55,038
People in Temporary Shelters: 863
Estimated incident costs to date: $77,563,282
Personnel on the fire: 4,224
Engines: 490
Water tenders: 77
Helicopters: 26
Handcrews: 78
Dozers: 96
Other: 37
Air Tankers: Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the State are flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow.