More on wildfires in rural northern California

I've been periodically posting about this topic for a few months now, but I figured the series was worth another installation as the Caldor Fire--a major California wildfire--pushes into the Lake Tahoe Basin today.  Here's a New York Times story from a few days ago about the possibility of this happening.  Here's a current story from the Sacramento Bee about what is happening.  And here is the evacuation order and warning information as of about 9:30 pm Pacific time tonight. 

 

The Caldor Fire started more than two weeks ago at the western end of El Dorado County, which lies just east of Sacramento County, less than an hour from where I live.  Part of El Dorado County is exurban to the greater Sacramento metropolitan area.  The Caldor Fire, which started near a premier wine region of El Dorado County called Fairplay, has since burned primarily eastward, in the direction of Lake Tahoe.  The counties wineries and other rural attractions like Apple Hill have been saved--so far.  

Several days ago, CalFire officials indicated that the fire had become the state's highest priority--indeed, the nation's highest priority--because of the Tahoe link.  I felt a little miffed, I admit, because it didn't seem entirely fair to divert resources from the longer-burning Dixie Fire a few hours to the north, in Plumas and Lassen counties.  (After all, "first in time, first in right" is a great American legal principle, and the Dixie  Fire came first.)  The only reason for that diversion, it seems, is that the Tahoe area is more built up and more economically vibrant, a big tourist draw--well, that and the fact that the folks who can afford to live in Tahoe tend to be wealthier than those in Plumas and Lassen counties.  Here are two screen shots of a Twitter thread a few days ago encapsulating that dynamic. 

And here is my prior post speculating about this issue.  

The other story I want to link to tonight is out of Plumas County; it's another dispatch from Annie Correal writing for the New York Times.  Correal grew up, partly, in the Indian Valley area of Plumas County, and in this dispatch she writes of the role of independent fire-watchers, many of them from the area, who accumulate local followings for their postings about the fire on social media.  These folks are especially important in communities like Lassen and Plumas counties who draw fewer media from the region to cover what's happening in these places that are little seen in uber-urban California.    

Earlier posts about the Dixie Fire are here, here, and here.