Get out of South Lake Tahoe, a favourite amongst guests
- South Lake Tahoe residents were ordered to travel east today.
- Police officers went door to door to make sure everyone was doing it.
- Around 24,000 people have already left their homes along the freeway that connects South Lake Tahoe with Sacramento.
Evacuations in and around the popular South Lake Tahoe town of Calfiornia came when the US Forest Service closed all 18 National Forests in California to the public while a fire season was already one of the worst.
Residents of a popular California resort, South Lake Tahoe, on the state border with Nevada, were ordered to head east today.
In the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, California, mandatory evacuation orders were issued as the Caldor Fire – one of 20 major forest fires currently burning in the Golden State – approached. Photos from South Lake Tahoe showed smoky air and pictures from the Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort 12 miles south showed firefighters assisted by the resort’s snow cannons, desperate to contain the inferno.
Around 24,000 people have already left their homes along the freeway that connects South Lake Tahoe with Sacramento. The fire destroyed nearly 500 buildings, injured five people and burned more than 177,000 acres, according to Cal Fire.
The Caldor fire was only 14% contained by Monday afternoon, and firefighters in Riverside and San Diego Counties, south of Los Angeles, were having similar difficulties getting the chaparral fire under control. Dramatic video footage filmed over the weekend showed helicopters dumping tank loads of water onto the fire that had been whipped into a tornado of flames.
Forest fires are a natural occurrence in California, though officials and scientists have also blamed climate change for lengthening dry spells and worsening the severity of the fires. The California authorities have also been blamed for poor forest management by some experts – and former President Donald Trump.
