Over the past three weeks, the Caldor Fire has burned more than 200,000 acres in western California, and continues to push eastward, toward the resort city of South Lake Tahoe and the Nevada state line. Evacuation orders have been issued for South Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area, where tens of thousands of structures are threatened. More than 4,000 firefighters are working on the blaze, amid continued hot, dry, and windy conditions. The Caldor Fire is now listed as 20 percent contained, as it descends into the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Photos: California’s Caldor Fire Threatens South Lake Tahoe
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A U.S. Forest Service firefighter crew arrives at the scene where flames from the Caldor Fire threatened to jump Highway 50 in Meyers, California, on August 31, 2021. #
Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty -
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Mel Smothers, an evacuee, plays the violin as he waits in a miles-long traffic jam on Highway 50 as people evacuate ahead of the Caldor Fire on August 30, 2021, in South Lake Tahoe. #
Justin Sullivan / Getty -
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Captain Adam Tinker and his crew monitor a firing operation, in which crews burn vegetation to create a control line, while battling the Caldor Fire in California's Eldorado National Forest, on August 26, 2021. #
Noah Berger / AP -
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Nick Aguilar (center), a firefighter with the El Dorado County Fire Department, and his colleague Craig Hadley, work to douse flames from the Caldor Fire burning through trees in Christmas Valley near South Lake Tahoe, on August 31, 2021. #
Brittany Hosea-Small / Reuters -
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