LIVING NEAR THE KING FIRE

Ordinarily we have to travel to find much excitement, because our homes in El Dorado County are in a scenic area that is generally bucolic. Lately, though, the excitement came to us. While out for a Sunday morning walk about ten days ago I was listening to a local radio broadcast, and heard something about a fire north of us. The sky was clear, and I couldn’t smell smoke, so I ignored any danger for a while.

Soon we learned that a fire was burning over several hundred acres of forested land just north of Pollock Pines. Luckily, the homes there are scattered and surrounded by defensible (cleared) spaces, making it unlikely that they were in much danger. Surely, we thought, firefighters would soon bring the fires under control, and that would be an end of it.

We were wrong. Over the next week the fire went on burning, spreading first to 2800 acres, then to 10,000 acres. On one particularly hot and windy day it swelled to 80,000 acres, more than a hundred square miles. A giant pyrocumulus cloud spanned the sky, and smoke and ashes began raining down. El Dorado County had the dubious distinction of  having the largest California wildfire of 2014.

Now, the fire is still spreading. It has grown to more than 95,000 acres, and at its easternmost edge is only a few miles from beautiful Lake Tahoe. A dozen homes have been destroyed, thousands of acres of forest have burned. Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes temporarily; some have gone back to intact homes, others have found smoke or worse. Thankfully, no lives have been lost, though four firefighters (including a prison inmate who was working on the front lines) have been injured.

Highway 50 is not too wide at Pollock Pines, and a successful effort has been made to keep the fire from spreading across it. Only that highway and a reservoir lie between hundreds of homes, including ours, and the fire.

Highway 50 is no longer “the loneliest highway in America.” Thousands of firefighters from hundreds of miles away, even from Idaho and other states, have hurried along it night and day. Overhead, helicopters carry water, and planes drop fire retardant on the flames. All along the road, people have posted signs thanking those who have come to help.

Fifteen miles to the west of Pollock Pines, the county fairground in Placerville is being used for the many cattle and other animals that had to be moved out of the burning area. Fire engines, bulldozers, and huge mobile dormitories for the firefighters fill the parking lot of a nearby Raley’s supermarket.

As the fire has moved to the northeast, we have been less affected by it. The air is clear again here, though there is still some smoke in the Lake Tahoe area. Life seems normal again in many ways. This morning it is even raining, for the first time in months. The rain is a double-edged sword, though. Falling on the clayey soil here, it will make it harder for firefighters to keep their footing.

The fire will probably continue raging for weeks. Now more than 40% contained, it cannot last through the approaching rainy season, but the effects will be long-lasting for the scarred land, the burned forests, some homeowners, and the wildlife.