Caldor Fire: Weather calms as residents come to grips with what they lost
»» Friday’s Update: Caldor Fire, still growing and uncontained, destroys more than 100 structures
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The Caldor Fire moderated early Thursday, giving residents of Grizzly Flats time to start taking stock of all they lost and what survived.
Days after frantically evacuating, a few residents returned to their tiny El Dorado County community, checking on whether their homes were still standing. One couple asked a Sacramento Bee journalist to see if their cat was alive.
While nearly 25,000 people remained evacuated, officials said the El Dorado County fire had slowed its growth after two explosive evenings. Nevertheless, the fire still posed a threat to as many as 7,000 homes and businesses in and around Pollock Pines, and remained 0% contained as of Thursday evening. Heavy smoke continued to blanket the region.
Increased humidity helped slow the fire Wednesday night, but that could change. “Fire behavior will increase in the afternoon when the (smoke) inversion layer lifts,” Cal Fire and Forest Service officials wrote in a report early Thursday. “Expect multiple new spot fires in the north and northeast areas of the incident, causing potential fire growth.”
The smoke inversion layer choked-off spread of the flames, Cal Fire officials said Thursday evening during a community meeting broadcast on Facebook. The effects of the inversion layer pushed the flames at a slow rate of speed east into the forest where there’s a lot fewer structures.
The weather forecast shows more of the same smoke inversion on Friday, Cal Fire officials said, but a strong 20-mph southwest wind was expected Saturday. But that wind would continue to push the fire east into the forest.
Flames on Thursday had not reached Sly Park Road on the western edge of the wildfire. Cal Fire officials said Thursday night that engine crews have been at every home along Sly Park, reducing vegetation around them that could fuel flames should the fire make a run northwest toward the road.
The flames on the north end of the wildfire remain south of Highway 50 but only a couple of hundred yards away. Fire crews have established control lines on the north end.
The fire was measured at 68,630 acres late Thursday, reflecting modest growth during the day. But it was still 10 times as big as it was just two days ago.
Meanwhile, a few residents such as Pat O’Brien were able to get back into their neighborhoods to retrieve belongings.
After fleeing Monday, O’Brien was allowed through the law enforcement roadblocks and returned to his Caldor Road home, which survived the fire. He loaded up his trailer with giant plastic bags full of household belongings. But before he got out of the evacuation zone, his pickup truck broke down on Grizzly Flat Road and he spent Wednesday night parked and waiting for help.
Thursday morning, he was still waiting. “I camped out here last night,” he said. “I had a comfortable bed, and my neighbor’s texting me telling me we’re OK.”
A friend had warned him about returning home, saying “that’s how people get killed.” But O’Brien felt the dangers were minimal.
“At least I have a plan,” said O’Brien, who’s lived in Grizzly Flats for 26 years. “I can get on a motorcycle, I can get in a car. I’ll get off the mountain. I’m a survivor.”
Residents confront losses from Caldor disaster
Tojo Thomas learned from a Sacramento Bee reporter that his vacation home on Meadow Glen Drive didn’t survive the fire. “It was my vacation home, like a second home to me,” said Thomas, whose primary residence is in the Castro Valley area of the East Bay. “This is one of my favorite spots to go. It’s just horrible. I’m kind of lost.”
His Grizzly Flats neighbor, Ivo Dachev, also learned from a Bee reporter that his home burned down. “I didn’t see the fire, but it was snowing ash,” he said of his evacuation.
Charles and Diane Makin were sitting outside the roadblock on Sly Park Drive that was keeping them from getting back to their Grizzly Flats home when they approached a Bee reporter to ask a favor.
The couple escaped the fire late Monday night after gathering up four of their five cats. But the fifth eluded them inside their home and they had to leave it behind, which led them to ask if a reporter could check on the house and feed the cat.
Charles Makin built the 3,300-square-foot concrete dome house from a kit he ordered from Florida 21 years after they retired to the forest from Sacramento.
The concrete didn’t help. The home burned, with the roof collapsing in on the home. The Bee reporter left two bowls of water but couldn’t find the cat.
Later, the Makins examined photos and a video of the remains of their house while at a relative’s home in Placerville.
“Well, I haven’t cried yet,” Diane Makin said as she faced the prospect of reliving memories about their home.
“We were retired before we moved up there. It was wonderful.”
Authorities have arrested at least two people on suspicion of looting in the area, and law enforcement is stopping anyone in the evacuation zones who is not clearly a firefighter or first responder.
“They’re being very conscientious about stopping anybody that does not look like a firefighter,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in an interview Thursday. “They are going to get contacted and asked for ID, and asked where they are going and why they are going there.
“Unfortunately, people will show up and take advantage of this type of tragedy, and they can expect law enforcement is going to take that very seriously.”
El Dorado County Sheriff’s Sgt. Eric Palmberg said 24-hour patrols will continue in evacuated areas, but officers have mostly encountered other law enforcement personnel.
“We have huge numbers of officers out there protecting your residences and your property,” Plamberg said during the Thursday night community meeting. “And that is going to continue until those areas are repopulated.”
Cal Fire officials said Thursday that it’s likely evacuation orders will remain in place for at least a week, possibly two, until those areas are deemed safe for residents to return.
The fire ignited Saturday evening about four miles south of Grizzly Flats, home to about 1,200 people. It remained mild until Monday night, when it exploded to life, raging to the north and northeast and ripping through Grizzly Flats. Two civilians were hospitalized with serious injuries, both airlifted after being picked up in Grizzly Flats.
Officials have not given a tally or estimate of structures lost, because damage assessment teams have not yet been able to inspect the fire zone. Bee journalists on the ground observed many homes, an elementary school, a church, a post office and many more buildings reduced to rubble.
“Extreme” fire activity continued Tuesday, prompting evacuations that evening for all of Pollock Pines, Sly Park, Kyburz and many surrounding areas.
No new evacuation orders yet
No new mandatory evacuation orders were issued Wednesday evening, but sheriff’s officials at 5 p.m. issued an evacuation advisory for northern portions of Amador County, south of the fire. The warning covers areas east of Fiddletown and north of and including Volcano and Buckhorn, up through the Amador-El Dorado county line.
Officials wrote in Thursday’s update that spot fires are emerging that remain “hidden” amid “dense timber stands and limited road access,” meaning in some instances, firefighters can’t detect them until they’re already a decent-sized problem.
Cal Fire and Forest Service leaders during briefings Tuesday and Wednesday noted that resources to combat the Caldor Fire have been limited, with the state stretched thin by the Dixie Fire, fires burning in Trinity County and other major incidents. About 30 engines were rerouted Wednesday from the Dixie Fire to the Caldor Fire because of the growing threat of the latter.
Authorities say more than 650 personnel are now assigned to Caldor, up from around 240 reported earlier in the week.
The fire has burned close to Highway 50, coming closest near Ice House Road about eight miles east of Pollock Pines.
Authorities have not yet had to close the highway, but if it does become necessary, it would present an obstacle for evacuation routes and also render travel between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe effectively impossible.
Caltrans said Wednesday that workers would be ready to close the highway if deemed necessary by the California Highway Patrol or other law enforcement.
Eldorado National Forest officials announced this week that the forest will be closed to the public through at least the end of September due to the Caldor Fire.
And on Thursday, the Forest Service announced the closure of the following forests through Sept. 6: Tahoe, Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, Six Rivers, Mendocino, Lassen, Klamath and Plumas. Officials cited the wildfire risks bearing down on the state.
The Bee’s Rosalio Ahumada contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 8:20 AM with the headline "Caldor Fire: Weather calms as residents come to grips with what they lost."
