CALDOR FIRE UPDATE. VISUAL COVERAGE OF FIRE SPREAD. DASHBOARD.

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Wednesday midday:
Approximately 204 Thousand Acres
Approximately 20% Containment

General Overview

Live views from the Christmas Valley and Echo Summit area showed some blue sky early Wednesday, with no reports of major structure loss in the Tahoe Basin. In the most critical areas near Meyers and South Lake Tahoe, crews have constructed dozer lines to the east and west of HWY 89, as well as a network of control lines around neighborhoods to the north and east (toward Heavenly area). Heavenly Resort is using snow guns to prep for possible arrival of fire front. The emphasis continues to be protecting homes in the Christmas Valley, Meyers and neighborhoods to the north where the fire is established in the mountains east of South Lake Tahoe and Stateline. Fire has been mostly on ridges but backing down toward neighborhoods and that will continue today.

Helicopter water drops are underway in the Christmas Valley area on the west side of HWY 89 Wednesday. Structure protection was mostly successful overnight into early Wednesday morning in Meyers and the Christmas Valley but more winds are forecast that could cause additional spot fires, and drive the fire further to the north to threaten additional heavily populated neighborhoods on the east side of South Lake and Stateline. Smoke is hampering the planned aerial attack to reinforce lines near Heavenly Resort.

To the west in the Echo Summit area, the fire is less hot than Tuesday but still active and debris and falling trees are a hazard. The fire is actively burning and structure protection is underway in the Horsetail Falls, Twin Bridges and Kyburz areas along the just off of HWY 50. The fire is moving north away from HWY 50 toward upper Echo Lake and into the Desolation Wilderness from the south, and backfiring operations are underway. To the west the fire has advanced further north toward Wrights Lake. Additional air attack is planned here, but smoke is an issue, and structure protection is being undertaken at Wrights Lake.

To the south the fire is generally being held at Hwy 88, and has reached Kirkwood Ski Resort, where structure protection was underway yesterday and will be today. Helicopter water drops from Silver Lake are underway north of the Kirkwood resort entrance. At this point it has not burned onto the resort but the situation is dynamic there as well as elsewhere.

Aerial mapping as well as heat detection show the expansion of the fire by more than 4 thousand acres since Tuesday. These maps, generated Wednesday morning, show fire perimeters as established by aerial surveys, as well as satellite detected heat signatures.

The perimeters (red borders) are more accurate than the heat signatures (red dots), which should only be used to understand the direction of fire movement, and are not generally accurate at a local scale.

The final images are detail of the official operations map, showing the Meyers area as of Wednesday AM, and the full operations map Wednesday AM.

Image 1 Caldor Fire eastern area wide
Image 2 Caldor Fire Meyers/Hwy 50
Image 3 Caldor Fire East of South Lake Tahoe
Image 4 Caldor Fire advancing toward Upper Echo and Wrights Lakes
Image 5 Caldor Fire along HWY 88 and near Kirkwood Ski Resort
Image 6 Caldor Fire Operations Map, Meyers Area
Image 7 Caldor Fire Full Size Ops Map Sept 1

Sept 1 Caldor Mts East of South Lake Tahoe

It is important to note that remote mapping of the fire is most often hours old. Perimeter data is collected every 12 hours, and heat signatures twice a day. Below we have assembled a dashboard of useful links, which will help you to understand the Caldor Fire, and how it is being battled.

Finally, to get the latest, best mapping information, use a variety of sources and understand that none will be truly up-to-date.

One useful one is Firemappers, which relies on satellite heat detection, and adds mapped fire perimeters. Satellite heat signatures are generally not accurate at the neighborhood level and should be used as a rough guide to fire movement:
https://tinyurl.com/55zszc2h

Another is the official InciWeb page for the Caldor Fire, which uses flight mapping:
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/map/7801/0/123627

General information from CAL FIRE:
https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/8/14/caldor-fire/

Evacuation Information: (El Dorado County)
https://www.edcgov.us/Pages/Caldor-Fire.aspx

Evacuation Information: (Douglas County, NV-East side of Lake Tahoe)

https://www.douglascountynv.gov/news/what_s_new/caldor_fire_tahoe_evacuation_orders

For real time winds at Lake Tahoe, one source with clickable links:
https://www.windfinder.com/#10/38.9946/-119.9666

For truly real-time visual information, AlertWildfire cameras are useful. There are dozens in the Tahoe Basin, and elsewhere on the perimeter of the Caldor Fire.
http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?v=fd40740

Some of the most informative for the Caldor Fire are:

Sierra at Tahoe: (Near Echo Summit)
http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?camera=Axis-Sierra

D.L. Bliss State Park (Emerald Bay)
http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?camera=Axis-Emerald

Heavenly Ski Area: (South Lake Tahoe)
http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?camera=Axis-Heavenly

Zephyr, NV (East Shore, north of Stateline)
http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?camera=Axis-Zephyr

Tahoe Mobile Camera (Near Emerald Bay-Tahoe Mt)
http://www.alertwildfire.org/tahoe/index.html?camera=Axis-LPDMobile1