Active flames were visible on the Heavenly fire camera pointing south into California. The Caldor Fire has yet to cross into Nevada as of Friday morning.
Genoa, Nev. — The Caldor Fire appears to be burning toward Highway 50 as of this morning on the fire maps. As of 4 a.m. today it remains three miles from the Douglas County line and has been making a left turn toward Pioneer Trail.
The trigger for evacuations along Foothill is the fire’s arrival at the Nevada state line, which it has yet to do. I’m confident that an emergency alert tone will come out should evacuations begin along there. Not long afterwards expect a knock at your door if it’s time to go.
Don’t be lulled by this fire slowing down. It’s done this before down below Twin Bridges before it blasted over Echo Summit. There are a lot of firefighters working to stop it, though and many of them are fighting on their home turf.
The smoke down in that corner of Carson Valley was so thick you could cut it with a knife down near Fredericksburg on Thursday, but the flames had yet to crest the Carson Range. It peaked at 489 at 10 p.m. Thursday. It’s only dropped to 201 as of 5 a.m., so expect another smoky day across much of the Valley.
The pyre.org fire modeling shows the fire slowing down, in part due to the massive efforts to stop it. Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard is urging boaters to avoid cruising Lake Tahoe while the fire is burning.
Meanwhile, 90 miles to the north, the Dixie Fire is back on the move toward Highway 395, this time south of Honey Lake. The highway is open this morning, but don’t be surprised if it ends up being closed at some point today.
Monday is Labor Day so any business you have with the government should be conducted today. Schools, banks and the post office will be closed for the holiday.
There’s a fall snap in the air this morning with the temperature dropping to 38 degrees in Minden this morning. Expect smoky skies through the day with a high near 84 degrees. A slight breeze of 5 mph is forecast to blow out of the north and northeast pretty much until Sunday night when we’re expected to see it pick up out of the west again.
Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com
