Fire crews around California’s Tahoe Basin initially thought they would be able to stop the Caldor Fire from reaching the mountain towns around Lake Tahoe—now, after the blaze exploded Sunday, they sound much more pessimistic. “Today’s been a rough day and there’s no bones about it,” Jeff Marsoleis, forest supervisor for El Dorado National Forest, said Sunday. Marsoleis said crews had been slowing the fire’s eastern progress, but “today it let loose.” According to the Associated Press, all residents on the California side of the basin have been told to evacuate the area. The Caldor Fire has been raging for two weeks and has reduced around 245 square miles to ashes. Cal Fire Division Chief Erich Schwab said: “To put it in perspective, we’ve been seeing about a half-mile of movement on the fire’s perimeter each day for the last couple of weeks, and today, this has already moved at 2.5 miles on us, with no sign that it’s starting to slow down.”
