Caldor fire Archives | Moss and Fog

There’s not much else to say about California’s Caldor fire, which is right on Lake Tahoe’s doorstep. It’s huge, destructive, and tragic. Over 60,000 people have had to be evacuated from South Lake Tahoe, and people claim that they’ve never seen anything like it.

California has always been a place of summer wildfire danger, but in the last ten years, it’s been worse and worse every year, with record-breaking fires destroying tens of thousands of acres each season.

Climate change is making the fire seasons drier, hotter, and much more dangerous, and fires like the massive Caldor Fire are just the latest in a grim reality that prove how drastically we need to change both our habits, and our ways of fighting fires.

The pristine beauty of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding nature make the fires all the more tragic. For anyone that’s ever visited this beautiful place, you can know the heartache of it being in grave danger of being lost.

Photos below are from the Caldor Fire as it approaches South Lake Tahoe. Via SF Gate:

https://twitter.com/SRodd_CPR/status/1432512413576749059?s=20

Lake Tahoe’s famed blue waters are tragically shrouded in thick grey smoke from the nearby Caldor fire. The wildfires this year have destroyed a record number of acres of forests, and have come perilously close to many communities.

Now with fires within thirty miles of the lake itself, residents and visitors alike claim that smoke has never been as bad as it is now. Indeed, the AQI, or Air Quality Index for the area reached a record 530, which is over 40 times more harmful than the World Health Organization deems ‘unhealthy’, and ranked among the worst air quality in the world.

Grimly, the hazardous conditions didn’t stop some people from carrying on as usual, like going golfing and visiting the neighboring casinos.

Here’s hoping the terrible conditions this year will spur more action to combat climate change and keep these wildfires from being business as usual.

Photos via AP: