At about 1:30pm on Saturday, August 18, a house fire spread to a 5 acre brush fire south of Sunnyside, near Tahoe City. the fire is located between Pineland Drive and Washoe Way, Three structures have burned , evacuations have started for Talmont and Sequoia avenue and Highway 89.

Smoke is billowing from the fire, with an orange glow. Viewing the fire from Incline Village, the smoke is very close to the lake shore. For residents living north of the fire, this is a scary scenario, as winds are blowing about 25 mph from the south- southwest. Keep posted and take head any new evacuations.

These are photos taken at about 3pm from Incline Village beach.

Firefighters have fully contained the Angora fire, which burned for more than a week, devastating 3,100 acres and 254 homes in the South Lake Tahoe area. The fire was believed to be accidentally started from an illegal campfire near Seneca Pond that got out of control. Residents evacuated from the area have been able to return home, but a large area of forest that burned is off-limits to the public for the time being. Cleanup and recovery now begins for the hundreds of residents who lost their homes to this early season fire.

Today, firefighters were able to further contain the fire in South Lake Tahoe, that has burned 3,100 acres. Forecast winds in the are did not materialize locally, giving firemen the edge they needed to make headway on the blaze. The fire is now 55% contained, and estimated to be fully contained by July 3.

The official count for homes lost stands at 229, with 13 other homes damaged. There are 3,000 evacuees, many of whom can not return to homes as downed power lines and unstable ground pose hazards such as falling rocks and trees. One firefighter was injured when a boulder rolled down a mountain side and broke his hand.

The forecast winds for this evening are light, and the night crew should be able to maintain headway made today. The night crew is kept out of dangerous and unstable areas where they can not see falling rocks and trees, so the number of men is much smaller than the daytime fire fighting unit.

The sad aftermath of the fire is the threat to water quality of the lake. If a 30 year storm event were to occur before crews are able to come in and stabilize the watershed, sediment will be transported to the lake, and contribute to algae growth. $5 million dollars have already been spent fighting the fire, to date, with cost estimates to grow considerably.

This afternoon, the Tahoe fire spread downslope towards Highway 89, reaching within one mile of Lake Tahoe. The fire has now burned over 3000 acres and is 44% contained.

At about 2pm, winds began to build and a spot fire from the burning crown of a tree jumped the fireline, trapping two firefighters. The two men took shelter in their reflective tent for an hour in the center of a green field. There whereabouts was unknown for an hour until they were found, shaken, but not harmed. Without the tent, they would have perished from inhaling the superheated air into their lungs.

The extremely dry conditions make spot fire from burning trees a real threat to the spread of the fire, as embers from these crowns have reached as far as the Lake and the opposite side of South Lake Tahoe to the golf course past casinos.

This afternoon’s flare-up was contained when 500 fire crew joined the fight against the blaze. 1,880 ground crew are fighting the fire, with 1,400 of them allocated to day duty.

The fire is now anticipated to be contained by July 3rd, due to the stronger than expected winds forcast over the next four days. Winds over 20 mph are a concern to the spread of the fire, and winds of 30 mph+ are forcasted.

The smoke will settle in over the Lake tonight, as downslope winds will create an inversion. The biggest concern is that the fire may spred north up towards Tahoe City, and to the southeast into South Lake Tahoe. Please stay tuned to local news alerts in case of any further evacuations.
tahoe fire

The smoke had lifted this morning in Incline Village, as the wind was calm and firefighters had contained the Angora fire up to 40%. You could not see very far down the lake, and South Shore was not visible. The haze that settled in yesterday remained over the lake, although a few boaters ventured out to enjoy the warm temperatures and filtered sun. My thoughts were with those who had lost homes in the past two days, two of my fellow agents at Chase in South Lake Tahoe were among the unlucky.

At around 2pm, leaves started to rustle, the haze began to clear, only to reveal the plume of smoke starting to grow once again. The light breeze slowly built, and the smoke drifted to the northeast, building once again.

By 3:00, billowing smoke appeared again as a southwesterly breeze kicked up across the lake. The sky yellowed and within just a few minutes, made its way up to Incline Village.

The smoke darkened as it rose, and the large plume had drifted over the Eastern Slope of Incline Village by 4pm, partly obscuring the sun.

News reports state that there is now a flare-up about 3 miles from the origin of the fire, and now, the blaze has jumped a fireline nearly a densely populated area. Officials have evacuated residents of Tallac Village, as the fire jumped the containment line to the north. Winds are expected to build and hamper firefighting efforts in the next few days. Officials had hoped the fire would be fully contained Sunday.

The fire has now consumed more than 2,700 acres and 275 structures have burned, 200 of which were homes. Nearly 1,900 firefighters have been battling the fire since it began Sunday afternoon, near Angora Lakes.

Firefighters will continue to battle the blaze on the ground and in the air, hoping to keep the fire from spreading into more populated and commercial areas in South Lake Tahoe.

View more photos at http://buytahoehomes.com/Lake_Tahoe_fire.html.
tahoe fire

More than 2,500 acres have been burned along with over 170 homes in the worst fire the Tahoe Basin has seen in recorded history. The fire began just west of Meyers in Angora Lakes on Sunday at around 2pm. By 5pm Sunday, a massive plume of smoke towering more than 1000′ was clearly visible against the crisp, blue sky. Winds topped 50 mph through the evening, sending embers “hop-scotching” through the century-old growth, sparking fires between Angora and the “Y”, dangerously close to the urban center in South Lake Tahoe.

Officials and residents, alike, anticipated this fire season would be a dangerous one, and such a massive fire so early in the season has proved this fear a reality. The annual May 1 snow survey recorded only 29% of the normal snowpack, the lowest since 1988, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The dry conditions coupled with dense forest growth in the Tahoe Basin provide a highly-flammable fuel source, that need only be ignited by a spark to spread into a raging inferno in minutes. There is little homeowners can do in a fire of this magnitude, when treetops are being ignited and the fire is spreading right above them. The sad truth is that we have allowed regulators to run amuck, inhibiting what firefighters and foresters have known to be a disastrous episode, such as the Angora fire, waiting to happen.

TRPA’s website states “TRPA has been working to attack the threat of catastrophic wildfire in the Tahoe Basin for more than 10 years. beginning in 2002, the Agency also entered into agreements with fire protection agencies to streamline the permitting of defensible space work on private properties.” They go on to say they have “never prohibited tree removal”, just requiring permitting. These statements are not true. TRPA will impose enormous fines if you cut a tree down on your own property, and it is very difficult to get a permit to cut.

First of all, any agreements TRPA made beginning in 2002, only 5 years ago, were drawn out tooth and nail. TRPA DOES regulated tree removal, and does outright prohibit removal of most trees around existing structures. TRPA encourages the use of pine needles used as erosion control around homes, and requires many BMP’s that fly in the face of fire protection. The basis of this backwards regulatory policy is to protect the clarity and water quality of Lake Tahoe. Now that nearly 4 square miles of forest have been burned along a major tributary to Lake Tahoe, massive amounts of deforested land will now be susceptible to erosion into the crystal blue waters of Lake Tahoe. If TRPA had not inhibited the efforts of fire officials and forestry regulators for over a decade, the good practices of reducing the undergrowth and thinning dense forested land would have lessened the current forest fire threat we face today. Homeowners would have been able to cut trees around their homes and allowed to protect their life’s investment, not to mention their own lives. Now, we are facing a huge threat to water clarity as this flume of carbon and charred vegetation will erode into the lake in the next significant rain event.

TRPA is a widespread source of frustration not only among homeowners, but for those who come to Tahoe to enjoy boating and recreating around the lake. By outright prohibiting breakwaters, they have allowed Tahoe’s notoriously windy and rough conditions to cause turmoil in launching areas such as Incline Village’s Ski Beach. A breakwater would provide safe harbor for boaters caught out in conditions which typically arise quickly, and prevent the sinking of many boats each year on their moorings, potentially releasing gasoline and oil into our beautiful lake waters. This is just one example of how TRPA wastes funds creating frivolous regulatory policies, and backing them up with outrageous fees to lawyers and policymakers, rather than working on practical solutions to foster the protection of Lake Tahoe, and the protection and enjoyment of the lake by homeowners and visitors, alike.

I hope the response to this disasterous fire is a huge outcry of public support for “smart” environmental policies, that allow homeowners to regulate their land, cut trees to prevent uncontrolled spreading of forest fires, foster green growth in their backyards instead of the dry tinder TRPA would have us amass in the form of pine needles. Massive amounts of funding is wasted by TRPA fighting homeowners who have tried to implement their own best management practices, and it is a sorry waste of money, a huge loss for both the quality of the lake and quality of life at Lake Tahoe. Changes need to be made, and the TRPA policies need to be revisited.
tahoe fire