Thousands of firefighters are trying to box in the Caldor Fire, which has shrouded the popular vacation spot in ash and yellow smoke.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — A California fire that gutted hundreds of homes advanced toward Lake Tahoe on Wednesday as thousands of firefighters tried to box in the flames and tourists who hoped to boat or swim were enveloped in a thick yellow haze of the nation’s worst air.
South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City on the west shore had the nation’s worst air pollution at midmorning Wednesday, reaching 334, in the “hazardous” category of the 0-500 Air Quality Index, according to AirNow, a partnership of federal, state and local air agencies. Trejo, who uses supplemental oxygen due to respiratory problems, said her husband wanted to keep gambling.South of Tahoe, Rick Nelson and his wife, Diane, had planned to host a weekend wedding at Fallen Leaf Lake, where his daughter and her fiance had met. However, the smoke caused most of the community to leave. The sun was an eerie blood orange and the floats and boats in the lake were obscured by haze.
Climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists. The last major blaze in the area, during the summer of 2007, took South Lake Tahoe by surprise after blowing up from an illegal campfire. The Angora Fire burned less than 5 square miles but destroyed 254 homes, injured three people and forced 2,000 people to flee.
“It’s the No. 1 fire in the country right now ... there’s dozens of crews and dozers and engines and others that are on their way right now,” said Jeff Marsolais, supervisor for the Eldorado National Forest and an administrator on the fire.“This fire has just simply outpaced us. We emptied the cupboards of resources,” Marsolais said, adding that while the blaze had slowed its explosive growth in recent days, “that can change.
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