widthDue to a huge Forest fire Thousands of people fled their homes near the popular tourist area of Lake Tahoe in California. On Monday, the so-called “Kaldor Fire” moved toward South Lake Tahoe, the most important resort in the famous resort area at the junction of California and Nevada. People find themselves enveloped in dense smoke in the middle of the idyllic mountain panorama of the Sierra Nevada.
The “Kaldor Fire” has been raging in Northern California since mid-August and has destroyed more than 700 square kilometers and destroyed hundreds of buildings. It spread rapidly in El Dorado National Forest. For a week, thick smoke enveloped the tourist resorts around Lake Tahoe.
“Now we have these fires every year”
“There was a knock on my door at 10 o’clock last night, and I was warned to be prepared,” Colleen Kobel of South Lake Tahoe told the Sacramento Bee. “At 10 o’clock this morning, the police drove us out,” said Kobel, who was separated. With it, about 22,000 people in South Lake Tahoe were asked to leave the area.
An Agence France-Presse reporter witnessed a group of cars and RVs leaving the town and blocking the main road. 74-year-old Mel Smothers was trapped in the street. He played the violin to pass the time in the traffic jam.
Smothers, who has lived in Tahoe since the 1970s, said this is the first time wildfires have driven him away. “But this won’t be the last time. This is heaven, but you know that Lake Tahoe has changed in the recent fire,” he told AFP. “That’s it from now on. We now have these fires every year.”
Lake Tahoe is famous for its clear water and beautiful mountain views. The surrounding area has spectacular scenery, including some of the most popular winter sports in the western United States.
However, the “Kaldor Fire” is only one of many fires in the entire region, which have overwhelmed the resources of local firefighters.Thousands of emergency services are fighting burn Not only raging around Lake Tahoe. Further north, the huge Dixie Fire has destroyed more than 2,800 square kilometers of land in the six weeks since it erupted.
Forest fires are not uncommon in California. Experts say this is due to long-term droughts and persistent high temperatures caused by climate change, making most areas of the western United States particularly vulnerable to forest fires this year.
By the end of July, California had 250% more area destroyed by fire than in 2020. The past year has been the worst year in the recent history of the West Coast state.
