Wildfire threatens Lake Tahoe

South Lake Tahoe, the year-round abrogation haven successful California, is facing a long-dreaded menace arsenic the monstrous Caldor Fire makes a downslope tally towards the evacuated city.

Firefighters are racing to enactment retired embers flying acold and wide, driven by Red Flag Warning winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour. The U.S.

Forest Service reports embers landing up to a fractional mile distant from the blaze, raging adjacent the Tahoe basin. 

That's wherefore officials ordered an evacuation of South Lake Tahoe's much than 20,000 residents. Many of them sat for hours, Nevada-bound, connected clogged highways Monday.

The Tahoe Basin is surrounded by mountains, including the Sierra Nevada scope connected its east. The Caldor and Dixie Fire, astir 65 miles to the northbound of the Lake Tahoe area, are the lone 2 blazes successful the state's past to pain from 1 broadside of the Sierra Nevada Mountain scope to the other.

The Caldor Fire has scorched astir 300,000 quadrate miles since breaking retired Aug. 14. The menace of occurrence is truthful wide that the U.S. Forest

Service announced Monday that each nationalist forests successful California would beryllium closed until Sept. 17. 

Authorities study much than 600 structures person been destroyed, and astatine slightest 33,000 much stay threatened.  

This communicative was primitively reported by Jason Bellini connected Newsy.com.