Teams of firefighters fighting the masses Caldor forest fire in California and Nevada they had a “monumental day” on Friday, when the best weather allowed substantial progress in containment of the flames, officials said Saturday morning. Hundreds of evacuees have already returned to their homes, as evacuation orders in certain affected areas have recently been reduced to warnings.
“The incident continues to look better every day,” Western Chief Operating Officer Tim Ernst said at a community briefing on Saturday. “We talked about being cautiously optimistic yesterday and we continue in that mode.”
In the past 24 hours, the Heat Fire has grown only 800 acres, the smallest daily increase since the fire was lit on Aug. 14, U.S. Forest Service Administrator Dean Gould said Saturday. “That’s pretty awesome,” he added.
Milder winds and higher humidity levels throughout the week have allowed crews to increase fire containment from 214,107 acres to 37%, managing to largely control their western border. Incident meteorologist Jim Dudley said similar conditions were expected Saturday.
Evacuation orders have been reduced to warnings in areas throughout El Dorado County, California, with fire officials advising residents to be “alert” to fire update conditions. However, residents in areas such as Tahoe Island and the Tahoe Keys are still under evacuation orders, with an unclear estimate of when they will be able to return home.
“It’s all based on the behavior of the fire,” said Jake Cagle, head of the fire operations section. “At the moment, things are looking good.”
Fire behavior analyst Steven Volmer warned crews not to be pleased with recent progress.
“There’s still a lot of heat,” he said. “There’s still a lot of hot wood. There’s still a lot of tree stumps. There’s still a lot of potential for this fire to move us.”
Operations are now focused on putting out occasional fires that may arise, keeping the fire north of Highway 4 and Highway 88 and controlling the areas around Bloodsucker Lake. According to Cal Fire, the massive fire is expected to be fully contained on September 27th.
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