(CN) — Firefighters appear to be gaining control of the Caldor Fire and have prevented it from touching South Lake Tahoe, one of the most populous places in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
“That’s what we like to see,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Marco Rodriguez. “It’s all about the success in getting people back into their homes and protecting as many structures as possible.”
Cal Fire lifted evacuation orders for much of South Lake Tahoe over the weekend as firefighters used the favorable weather conditions to build lines in the forest near Echo Summit to prevent the further encroachment of the 220,000-acre blaze.
“We had some dozer lines right along Pioneer Trail and managed to keep it south of Echo Pass,” Rodriguez said. “The crews did a phenomenal job of backfiring and stamping out the hotspots.”
With backfiring, firefighters purposely burn ground fuels in front of the fire in a controlled way so that when the fire arrives has has no fuel left to power its advance. Hotspots occur when embers are driven by the wind and create new fires in places separate from the main fire. Firefighters also use bulldozers and hand crews to cut lines in the forest to create a break so the fire is stopped once it reaches the line.
“We were able to keep the fire away from the structures in South Lake Tahoe,” Rodriguez said.
Crews also successfully protected structures in the mountain towns of Strawberry and Kyburtz, both west of Echo Summit.
“We didn’t lose any structures in Strawberry,” Rodriguez said.
Other remote towns in the El Dorado National Forest were not so lucky. The town of Grizzly Flats, once home to nearly 1,100 people, was almost entirely destroyed in the first days of the Caldor Fire.
The blaze has so far destroyed approximately 1,000 structures including homes and businesses. Five people have been injured, including two who were hospitalized with severe burns incurred when fleeing the fire.
Cal Fire listed the Caldor Fire as 49% contained on Tuesday morning, an indication they have finally gotten a hold on the fire.
Firefighters will continue to battle the Caldor Fire as a heat wave settles in to bake much of the West through the coming week. Smaller towns like Meyers and cabins in the Christmas Valley and other places near Echo Summit remain under evacuation.
Up north, the Dixie Fire continues its march toward 1 million acres burned, but firefighters have also managed to gain the upper hand. The fire — currently the second largest in recorded state history — was 59% contained as of Tuesday morning.
Three other fires broke out over Labor Day weekend.
The Bridge Fire sparked under the Foresthill Bridge outside of Auburn, a foothill town near Sacramento. Firefighters have so far held the blaze to 411 acres, and have it 25% contained.
In Southern California, the Aruba Fire broke out and scorched 50 acres in San Diego County, but that fire is listed at 75% containment.
The Caballo Fire bears watching as it has burned 50 acres in Santa Barbara County and is zero percent contained as of Tuesday morning.
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