Caldor Fire – 9/12/2021 Update

Hello everyone!

I got pulled into a long day in the field for an in-depth story about the Dixie Fire, so our Caldor Fire coverage took a hit. I do post brief updates on Twitter @wildland_zko when I don’t have time for a full post here, so give me a follow there.

Thanks to our contributor ‘Tumbleweed’ and our with volunteer map data wizard ‘Tornadokat.’ Due to their hard work, we have updated maps from last night.

Here are heat maps from 11:17pm on September 11, 2021. Blue lines indicate contained line aka “Blackline” (the color blue shows up better on maps). Red areas are uncontained meaning the fire team is not ready to walk away from them yet. There is no white (previous perimeter) lines as there was no spread to speak of. Clear areas do not indicate that there is no heat. There are many reasons for heat not showing on IR runs and only eyes on the ground can determine when it’s safe to enter an area.

Maps have a north arrow in the lower-right.

Looking south over Lower Echo Lake. They’ve mopped up 50’ in and are going for more. In general, the area is cooling off.

Looking south over Meyers. This will be the last map we post here unless something changes which I doubt as most of it is blacklined and wind tested. They opened up North Upper Truckee Rd to local folks. Welcome back! Christmas Valley is the only large area that remains closed within the Tahoe Basin.

Looking north over Cody Lake area. Spot fires have been ringed. Now they’re trying to connect the all the dozer line with the handlines. The lower blue area is the Caples fire from 2019.

Commentary from Zeke: This area is not completely off the hook. There is a lot of perimeter in this area which could throw out new spot fires if we have an extended period of hot weather and winds. Our 2021 fuels conditions aren’t going to be affected much by the 1/2″ of rain we received. That’s just a drop in a very big pan.

Closer look at the active parts of fire northeast of Kirkwood. White line is 24 hours of fire spread. Looking WNW down Strawberry Creek.

Looking southwest over the Caples Burn (blue), just north of Kirkwood.

Looking north of Silver Lake. There is still some open line shown around Hoghway 88, but they anticipate this turning into blackline in the next couple of days. Kirkwood is in the upper middle-right.