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Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons License. The Angora Fire was a wind driven fire that started near North Upper Truckee Road subdivision near Angora Lakes, Fallen Leaf Lake, Echo Lake and South Lake Tahoe, California around 2:15 PM on Sunday, June 24, 2007 as a result of an illegal campfire.
04 Sep 2021

Fire season not nearly over in California - an entire lake resort ordered to evacuate overnight

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Forest fires have affected California all summer. Fire season started earlier than usual due to heat waves - and fire season is far from over yet. During Monday August 30th,  all residents and tourists at the resort of South Lake Tahoe were forced to evacuate.

California has already been plagued by the Dixie fire, which has been the largest in the state's history, and also other larges large fires.  Fires are now also burning near the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Thousands of people had to urgently  evacuate from the resort town of South Lake Tahoe at the end of August. A wildfire was burning along the shores of the large freshwater lake Lake Tahoe, which stretches across California and Nevada, reports Reuters.

The evacuation warnings which on Sunday August 29th were issued for the 22,000 residents of the resort quickly were turned into an evacuation order already on Monday. Vehicles loaded with bicycles, camping equipment and boats drove in a caravan through the thick, brown smoke. 

Only a day before, communities several miles south of the lake were suddenly ordered to evacuate when the nearby Caldor fire broke out.

South Lake Tahoe's main medical facility, Barton Memorial Hospital, evacuated 52 patients, 16 of them in emergency beds, on Sunday and placed them in regional facilities far from the fire, according  to Chief Information Officer Mindi Befu. The rest of the hospital evacuated after Monday's extended order.

The entire Lake Tahoe area of ​​the Sierra Nevada Mountains is a recreational nature spot for locals in the San Francisco Bay Area, famous for beaches, water sports, hiking, ski resorts and golf.

Tamara Wallace, mayor of the area, had not imagined the Caldor fire would come so close. According to her, this fire is yet another example of how forest fires have changed over the years. She blames the situation on the culmination of 14 to 18 years of unremoved dead trees,  and also heatwaves and drought. 

 

Cover Photo (above) of the Angora Fire in the same area of South Lake Tahoe in 2007. (Wikipedia Commons License)

The Angora Fire was a wind driven fire that started near North Upper Truckee Road subdivision near Angora Lakes, Fallen Leaf Lake, Echo Lake and South Lake Tahoe, California around 2:15 PM on Sunday, June 24, 2007 as a result of an illegal campfire.