CALDOR FIRE BREAKS THROUGH TO TAHOE BASIN

The Caldor wildfire in the mountains of northeast California, driven by high winds, broke through firefighters’ defence lines on Tuesday, reaching the summit of Highway 50 and beginning its descent into the Tahoe basin toward the city of South Lake Tahoe. Gusting winds carried embers more than a half-mile, causing fires to break out both to the west and east of the city, forcing firefighters to extinguish spot fires. The fire grew to more than 191,000 acres overnight from 177,000 acres early Monday as the number of threatened structures rose to 33,000 from 20,000. Containment of the blaze had edged up to 16% from 14% overnight. Firefighters largely had the city of South Lake Tahoe to themselves on Tuesday as the city’s 22,000 residents heeded mandatory evacuation orders the day before. Those orders have now been extended to communities to the northeast of the city in Nevada. The National Weather Service said the high winds will persist through Wednesday night.