Caldor Fire

Thanks for the inside info Jeff! Crossing fingers!

Jamie (K6NUB) said Just saw the local news reporting at 33 milestone tract with active fire on south side of hwy 50. Not looking good for strawberry.

9 miles from our turn off.

We were evacuated at 3am last Tuesday and had an hour to get out. I got all of the important paperwork and photos but didn’t have much time to get things secured. The CJ is under the car port and the LJ is in the new metal shop so it should be fine. Generator shut off Thursday afternoon so we are at least looking at an insurance claim to replace the fridges full of now rotting food and likely smoke damage. The fire is running the ridge to the south of us and currently just over a mile away.

kris_olof said We were evacuated at 3am last Tuesday and had an hour to get out. I got all of the important paperwork and photos but didn’t have much time to get things secured. The CJ is under the car port and the LJ is in the new metal shop so it should be fine. Generator shut off Thursday afternoon so we are at least looking at an insurance claim to replace the fridges full of now rotting food and likely smoke damage. The fire is running the ridge to the south of us and currently just over a mile away.

So sorry Kris - I hope everything is ok.  Be safe!

Good luck Kris. I hope your little piece of paradise survives this fire! It must be extremely difficult given how long you have been evacuated and waiting to hear news.

Kris I hope you guys are doing well and holding up ok I can't imagine what you guys are going through.  I do want to thank Jeff for keeping us informed on the fire.  If it goes through Strawberry we should contact Kyle so when this whole thing is over we can go do an assessment if they will even let us in the area.  My fear is they will close Strawberry permanently. Maybe someone from the club can reach out now and get some updates and details specific to Strawberry.

The Caldor fire won't burn through our beloved Strawberry Trail... That's me thinking positively.

👏

JohnDF said The Caldor fire won't burn through our beloved Strawberry Trail... That's me thinking positively.

JohnDF said The Caldor fire won't burn through our beloved Strawberry Trail... That's me thinking positively.

Great Idea I'll start thinking those thought also a lot can be said about positive thoughts. Thanks John for the positive attitude.  👍

Thanks for the continued updates Jeff and the info about the fight.

Kris- sorry to hear of the evac and potential damage …. Glad you were able to make it out safe. Hope the damage is minimal and you guys can get back soon.

Kris, Hopefully, all will remain safe for you & your family. Please let us know if & when you can.

Hopefully the fire steers clear of your place Kris.  Let's see if we can get some divine intervention here.

Also Rob and Amber's place is close to Sly Park area and hopefully theirs is spared.

Kris, thoughts and prayers out to you and  your family and all those impacted by these horrible fires! Please let us know if there’s anything you or anybody else needs.

Fire fighters have done an amazing job saving pollock pines. They have had a big fight holding the back burns from slopping over dozer lines on the south side of sly park road the last few days. So far no structures lost in that area. I have a friend who's house did sustain minor fire damage. The front deck and 2 storage units burned but house still stands. The fire is 12% contained. The east part of the fire has burned past packsaddle pass and heading down the back side of that mountain towards strawberry pass. Big concerns as it’s getting close to the town of strawberry.  Hopefully fire fighters can do as good as a job for strawberry as they did for pollock pines.

Firefighting now states their "last line of defense" is the grade down 50 into Tahoe.  That means everything before there will likely be consumed.

Based on their update tonight, the fire has not crossed strawberry creek yet. They said they have a dozer line tied all the way to 88. I hope it’s not the trail. But I have a feeling the trail may have been dozed.

I fear they have dozed the trail too... seems like their easiest course of action for a fire break and firefighter access.

Gregulator said Based on their update tonight, the fire has not crossed strawberry creek yet. They said they have a dozer line tied all the way to 88. I hope it’s not the trail. But I have a feeling the trail may have been dozed.

According to a report I saw a few days ago, they have a dozer line along MET to Silver Fork road all the way to Hwy 50 and were hoping to contain the fire there. While it is possible that they have dozed some or all of the trail, there are a few reason that they may not be dozing it for a fire line. Ideally you want to be able to get engines in and have hose lays along the line in order to extinguish any spots that occur over the line. While this isn't always possible, if they dozed the trail then they would need engine, aircraft, hand crews etc. support to manage any slop over along the fire line. They haven't been able to get any aircraft into that area due to heavy smoke, so unless they bring engines in they probably would not doze the trail.

Another consideration in creating dozer containment lines is topography. Fire typically burns up hill, up slope much more readily and faster than down hill, down slope or side slope unless wind driven. Often dozer lines go along the ridge or straight up a hill. Fire will run parallel to a dozer line straight up a hill making the fire less apt to jump the line unless there are winds counter to the natural uphill direction of travel of the fire. Ridges are used because the fire runs out of up hill, up slope advantage so a ridge makes a great place for a dozer line. But again, they must have the ability to combat spots over the dozer line or the line is useless. They often use firing operations between the dozer line and the fire to remove fuel between the dozer line and the fire. They would not use firing operations unless they had engine or air support because they could actually accelerate and increase the spread of the fire if it jumped the dozer line.

In addition, fire burns much more rapidly up draws because the V shape of a draw creates a chimney effect. Chimneys are extremely dangerous in firefighting. Fire burning up a draw or chimney will have much more energy that one burning up a hill of the same grade. Most of the trail is not at along a ridge and is on a side hill far from the ridge making it a poor choice for a potential containment line. It has several switchbacks in draws which again would not make for a very good containment line. And lastly, there are no escape routes and it is not paved, which would make it extremely difficult for crews to escape if things "went to shit" and the fire blew up on them. I really doubt that the incident command team would risk placing hand crews and engines along most of the Strawberry trail given some of the above mentioned factors. They can't even keep it from jumping Hwy 50 so when you compare that to the trail, you can see why the trail would be a poor choice for a containment line with the current fuel and weather conditions. I could be wrong, but I hope I'm not for the sake of our trail.

If the fire does reach the trail, which it appears it is almost certain to do, I suspect the trail will be closed to the public for a long time, perhaps a year or more, while they work to remove snags (dead trees) and other hazards and address erosion mitigation and reforestation needs. There is also the possibility that they may doze the trail in the future for post fire logging and other reasons but again, parts of the trail make it a poor choice for this. I hope we can get some official information about the status of the trail within the next few weeks.

Here is the dozer line map as of 11pm last night.

I just watched the update from last night (https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/08/27/caldor-fire-latest-updates/). At the 16 minute mark they said they have several dozer lines along Strawberry Creek and that they are hoping to hold the fire there. They are conducting firing operations along those lines.

kris_olof said Here is the dozer line map as of 11pm last night.

Wow dozer lines all the way down the creek. They didn’t go up on the trail.

Our trail goes up from the dozer lines where I drew the black line.

So there's still hope the trail will be saved.

For a whole lot of reasons including our trail, praying the dozer lines hold and help them get this thing under control!

Robert & Amber said Our trail goes up from the dozer lines where I drew the black line.

Awesome Robert, thanks! Looks like we will have a much wider area before the trail to air up or down in the future provided the fire doesn't shut it down.