Official reports progress in defending Lake Tahoe from fire
Source: AP
By SAM METZ, JANIE HAR and JOHN ANTCZAK
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters reported progress Wednesday in the battle to save communities on the south end of Lake Tahoe from an approaching forest fire after the stiff winds and searing temperatures they had feared failed to materialize in the California-Nevada alpine region.
“We lucked out a little bit yesterday with some of the winds that didn’t come up quite as hard as we expected them to,” Tim Ernst, an operations section chief, told firefighters in a morning briefing.
An inversion layer, a cap of warm air over cooler air, then developed in the early morning hours “that put a real damper on things, slowed a lot of growth,” Ernst said. “So a lot of opportunity to make a lot of progress last night.”
The Caldor Fire has been burning toward Lake Tahoe from the southwest along California Highway 50, climbing over a high-elevation Sierra Nevada summit and descending into the Tahoe Basin.
Firefighters put out hot spots near South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. Authorities are reporting progress in the battle to save communities on the south end of Lake Tahoe from a huge forest fire. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-south-lake-tahoe-7fa5e202a22112071720c7553f0b7684
