A wildfire that burned several homes near Los Angeles may signal that the region is facing the same dangers that have scorched Northern California this summer.
The fire in San Bernardino County erupted Wednesday afternoon, quickly burned several hundred acres and damaged or destroyed at least a dozen homes and outbuildings in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles, fire officials said. Crews used shovels and bulldozers and mounted an air attack to keep the South Fire from the tiny communities of Lytle Creek and Scotland.
About 600 homes and other buildings were threatened by the blaze along with power transmission lines and 1,000 residents were under evacuation orders.
At times the wind-driven fire was burning 1,000 acres (405 hectares) of land per hour and on Wednesday it was less than two dozen miles (37 kilometers) from Lake Tahoe, an alpine vacation and tourist spot that straddles the California-Nevada state line.
There weren't any evacuations in Tahoe but the fire continued to cast a sickly yellow pall of smoke over the scenic region.
The communities of South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City on the lake's west shore had the nation’s worst air pollution at midmorning Wednesday, according to AirNow, a partnership of federal, state and local air agencies.
Official says Caldor Fire "has simply outpaced us" as it nears Lake Tahoe
Tori B. Powell
Firefighters tackling the Caldor Fire now have priority over available resources as the blaze has become "the number one fire in the country right now in terms of priorities for values at risk," according to El Dorado National Forest supervisor Jeff Marsolais. Burning only 11 miles southwest of the Lake Tahoe area, local officials said they worry about the fire's spread.
"This fire has just simply outpaced us," Marsolais said Tuesday night at a community briefing. "We emptied the cupboards of resources, and the local fire chiefs of Amador and El Dorado counties sent every resource they could, and no matter how many folks we tried to get on it, it just continued to outpace us."
As of Wednesday morning, the Caldor Fire has burned 126,182 acres and is only 11% contained, Cal Fire reports. The massive blaze has already damaged 461 residences, 34 structures, 11 commercial properties and 165 minor structures, with more than 17,000 structures still in its possible path. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Fire officials expect to fully contain it by August 31.
"[This is] still a very large fire that we're still going to have a lot of work to do to get around," Cal Fire Amador-El Dorado unit chief Mike Blankenheim said.
The fire's behavior in the area has fluctuated since it began on August 14, Marsolais said. A change in wind pattern Tuesday evening decreased fire activity to allow firefighter teams to strengthen and improve certain control lines, Cal Fire said. However, the agency reported spot fires along the southwest and the northeastern areas of the wildfire and around its perimeter.
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