But this area has stayed a haunted ghost town, with the exception of a steady stream of firefighters, emergency workers, and roving bears and coyotes at least until Labor Day weekend.
Lighter winds and increased humidity that swept through Labor Day weekend reduced the spread of the flames, and fire crews were fast able to exploit this, doubling the burning and severed fire lines around the Caldor fire.
Bulldozers with enormous shovels, crews armed with shovels, plus a fleet of planes that splashed hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and fire retardants helped limit the spread of the wildfire to a few thousand hectares, a fraction of its explosive spread last month and the lowest increase in two weeks.
“The incident continues to look better and better every day,”Tim Burton
‘The incident continues to look better and better every day,’ Tim Burton, operations director with the California Agency for Forestry and Fire Prevention, told firefighters on Saturday.
The northeastern section of the 333-square-mile blaze remained within a few miles of South Lake Tahoe and the Nevada state line, but firefighters have said it has not made any material progress for several days and does not challenge curbs across large portions of its perimeter.
Authorities moved more people to their homes near the west and north sides of the fires Friday afternoon, after containing a third of the fire.
Residents who had to flee South Lake Tahoe earlier in the week were removed from their homes and people across the state line in Douglas County, Nevada were evacuated.
The resort, which can serve up to 100.000 guests, was eerily empty over the Labor Day holiday weekend.
#RT @CAL_FIRE: #CaldorFire near Little Mountain, south of Pollock Pines in El Dorado County is 214,107 acres and 37% contained. Unified Command: @CALFIREAEU, @EldoradoNF, and @ElDoradoSheriff
https://t.co/TaOua73hci pic.twitter.com/DQSGBsa4Mh— CAL FIRE PIO (@CALFIRE_PIO) September 4, 2021