Winds Die Down As Firefighters Continue Battling Angora Fire

Jun 25, 11:40 PM

Current Headlines: By Dorothy Korber and M.S. Enkoji, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jun. 26--Firefighters battling a destructive, 2,500-acre forest fire got a leg up Monday afternoon when the wind died in the southern Tahoe Basin, where nearly 200 homes have burned and more than 400 families are still evacuated.

Highway 50 was opened late Monday afternoon. The only road still closed was the southbound lane of State Route 89 at Emerald Bay.

The oblong footprint of the blaze -- dubbed the Angora fire -- had stalled by 3 p.m., said Jackie Faike of the U.S. Forest Service. "It's more like a gentle creep, if anything," she said.

Early Monday evening, the Forest Service said the fire was 40 percent contained.

The lucky break gave firefighters a chance to block the fire at the front end, she said. An all-out effort to save the South Lake Tahoe High School campus was successful, Faike said.

Now everything hinges on low winds tonight, Faike said.

How soon residents could return to their homes, or what's left of them, won't be decided until tonight at the latest, she said.

The neighborhoods ravaged by the fire aren't million-dollar lakefront properties. The median value for homes there is about $390,000 -- and 80 percent of them are occupied by their owners.

Throughout the day Monday, nervous homeowners converged at Lake Tahoe Community College to verify damage to their houses. Some hurried in to run their finger down lists of streets and addresses. The spreadsheets gave four columns for damage ranging from "OK" to "major."

"It's like a morgue," said Holly Marin, whose home of 13 years burned in the fire. Others shuffled in to check the list although they already knew the fate of their home from images on TV but wanted to check on their neighbors' houses.

"Did your house make it?" was a common question neighbors asked each other after they looked at the list. Many residents remained at the college for support and to recount stories of their evacuations.

Marin recalled "softball-sized fireballs that were popping off the trees."

They ate pizza and soft drinks as people gathered around the television coverage of the fire.

"There's 3,000 of us wandering around," said Beverly Ott, who had not been able to determine the fate of her home.

Katherine Suter said she went from "chaos" to "numb" over the last 24 hours.

"I'm supposed to be back at work in two days, but I don't even have an alarm clock," she said. Her house has survived, but there is no power or water.

"Today is our best day to stop this fire because winds are going to pick up Tuesday and are going to peak on Wednesday," Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said Monday. "We recognize that we are protecting billions of dollars of property value at Lake Tahoe. We are using everything we can get our hands on today. We have plenty of people on hand."

On the eastern and northern flanks of this fire, Mathes added,"we have done a lot of thinning and prescribed burning in the past. We estimate that those fuel treatments saved about 500 homes yesterday and early this morning."

In addition to the 173 homes with total or major loss, nine have moderate damage and another 17 suffered minor damage, according to El Dorado County Sheriff Jeff Neves, speaking at a noon press conference Monday with Yvonne Jones, a federal fire information officer.

As of noon, Neves said, there were no deaths or injuries reported.

The precise cause of the wind-driven fire remains under investigation, Jones said. She was asked why officials believe the fire was "man-caused."

"There was no lightning -- that's why," Jones answered.

Jones, who said 250 to 500 homes remain threatened, was asked why some homes were destroyed, while the house next door was spared.

"Sometimes it has to do with the building material," she said. "If a home has an aluminum roof, it's less likely to burn. Sometimes, it's the wood deck that catches fire. There are many reasons why it would happen. The homeowners who cleared around their homes did an excellent job. They bought themselves valuable insurance."

Neves said a hotline has been established for evacuated homeowners wanting to know the status of their houses: (530) 541-4660, extension 336.

People can also get updates online at El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.

The U.S. Forest Service has established its own call center for updates on the fire at (530) 543-2694. A tape-recorded message can be heard at (530) 543-2600.

A community meeting will be held at 8 p.m. today at South Tahoe High School, 1735 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Authorities will meet with community members to discuss the fire as well as holding a news briefing for media.

By mid-day Monday, Sheriff Neves said, 700 firefighters were battling the blaze, with more coming in. He said there are 22 strike teams. Because of poor visibility due to heavy smoke, no planes or helicopters have gone up Monday.

Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said winds are expected to die down, making firefighting efforts easier.

"The good news is that nobody has died or has been injured," Berlant said.

Lt. Governor John Garamendi has proclaimed a state of emergency, which directs state resources to the firefighting effort, under the California Office of Emergency Services. This is a step toward securing federal aid.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is in Europe, was first briefed on the Tahoe fire at 5 p.m. Sunday and has been briefed hourly since, Garamendi said. Schwarzenegger participated in a 23-minute conference call this morning with the lieutenant governor and Director Henry Renteria of the Office of Emergency Services.

In a statement issued Monday morning, Schwarzenegger said:

"Many residents have already lost their homes and many more are in danger. I am working closely with all parties and we remain committed to ensuring that every resource is available in an effort to prevent any further losses.

"I extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the firefighters who are courageously battling the fire, and who put their lives on the line every day to protect the citizens of California, you are true heroes."

Of those who have lost homes were two recently retired firefighters, said Ross Dow, division chief of the South Lake Tahoe Fire Department.

"We are all impacted, whether we are firefighters, police officers or grocery store clerks. There won't be anyone who won't know someone affected," Dow said. "I've been here almost 30 years and I have never seen anything like this."

Nonetheless, fire officials were upbeat because the winds have died down considerably from Sunday. The winds Monday are blowing about 6 mph and are in a northerly direction where the fire started, which is good, Dow said.

Eastbound 50 remains closed and westbound traffic is being screened for people who have legitimate business in the area, police said.

At daybreak Monday, a blanket of smoke thousands of feet high smothered most of Lake Tahoe. A thick layer of ash covered parked cars. At a press briefing, Lt. Kevin House of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department described the Angora fire as the largest disaster in the community's history.

Local officials have worked hard to clear timber and underbrush in the area over the past 10 years, according to Lt. Martin Hale of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, but apparently that effort has proved inadequate.

The rugged terrain, extremely dry conditions and high winds came together Sunday afternoon to create the disasterous situation, Hale said.

"We never have had a loss of property of this magnitude," he said.

The scene was grim around burned neighborhoods Monday morning.

"The worst part is not knowing if your property was destroyed," said Steve Ontj, 61, from San Jose.

Ontj said that about 1 p.m. Sunday, he and his wife arrived at their summer cottage on Seneca Street in suburban South Lake Tahoe.

"Then we drove to the grocery store, and when we were returning to the cottage we saw the fire," he said. "The fire was starting to climb the trees."

Ontj said that, based on his information, the fire started near Seneca Pond by a hiking trail.

They were able to enter the cottage when they returned from the store, but not for long.

"We were there for at least one hour until we were told to evacuate," he said. "We're now staying at the Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe. We're hoping we can get back in there soon to see what's happening. We're confident that the cabin is still there."

West of South Lake Tahoe, utility workers were busy shutting down power and water to a residential neighborhood that demonstrated the fickleness of wildfire. A house with a green lawn stands unscathed on one side of the street-while across the way all that remains of another house is its foundation and chimney.

This kind of hopscotch pattern, while heartbreaking to those who lost homes, at least spares some houses. Other neighborhoods were completely destroyed.

In the area near Lake Tahoe Boulevard and Coyote Ridge Road, it appears that a huge swath of flames leveled the entire neighborhood. Shells of cars rested on their rims after the intense heat melted the tires and blew out the windows.

Stumps of trees are smoldering, with flames flickering like birthday candles.

Fire crews were knocking down brush and making trenches to stop the fire from spreading further. Seven hundred firefighters are battling the blaze this morning.

Firefighters are concerned about shifting winds -- particularly in an easterly direction where residential communities are in danger, said House of the El Dorado Sheriff's Department.

Firefighters are working in an area bordered by Highway 89 to the north, Fallen Leaf Lake Road to the west, Echo Peak to the south and Lake Tahoe Boulevard to the east.

Sunday evening, a strike team of fire fighters from the Sacramento region was dispatched by the state Office of Emergency Services to help fight the fire. Their initial assignment was to protect South Lake Tahoe High School overnight.

The strike team was led by the Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Department, which provides fire protection and emergency medical services for Elk Grove, Galt, and unincorporated south Sacramento County.

The five-engine, 20-firefighter local team was dispatched from fire departments in El Dorado County, Folsom, Sacramento, and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

-----

To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.