With gusts of wind expected until at least Wednesday night, firefighters fear the Caldor fire may continue its relentless push towards Heavenly Ski Resort, a popular destination for tourists to Tahoe.
Maps show the flames could be as close as four miles from parts of the complex. Time-lapse video from wildfire cameras at Heavenly showed dark, hazy skies moving between shades of yellowish gray to dark orange, like on a dimmer, as winds swept through the trees on Tuesday afternoon.
Video captured by KCBS Radio Tuesday showed that the complex was pulling several of its hydrants, spraying water over part of the complex. Susan Whitman, spokesperson for the Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood resorts, told The Chronicle that resort officials pumped “a significant amount of water” into the mountains.
Whitman said “key infrastructure” was in place at Heavenly and Kirkwood, adding that the US Forest Service and officials from various fire and local agencies had helped complex officials protect structures and other mitigation efforts.
“Everyone in the region is focused on safety and mitigation at this point, but we want to be a useful resource,” Whitman said.
Gusting winds can send embers from the forest fire flying overhead – and with so much dry vegetation, any embers are likely to start point fires up to a mile in advance, complicating the work of firefighters, a explained Cal Fire spokesman Jason Hunter, a captain from the West Sacramento Fire Department.
This map above illustrates the destructive path firefighters fear the flames could take if the wind continues to push them out of Highway 50.
According to Eric Guevin, local fire marshal and spokesperson for the response on the Nevada side, Heavenly is “on the way to the fire. It’s just that (the fire) isn’t there yet.
The Caldor fire started on August 14 south of Grizzly Flats and pushed relentlessly on Highway 50, going over 8 miles on some days, fueled by dry wood and winds through a landscape that mostly avoided forest fires in recent decades. It was 16% content Tuesday night.
The blaze torched 191,607 acres and hundreds of cabins and homes while continuing to threaten more than 33,000 additional structures as it spreads south and heads northeast.
This is one of only two wildfires in California to have climbed over a peak in the Sierra and run to the other side. The Dixie Fire, which reached over 800,000 acres on Tuesday, did so weeks earlier.
Danielle Echeverria is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @DanielleEchev