The Caldor Fire was completely unaccounted for on Tuesday, as it ran through the rugged forested area of El Dorado County. Further, it destroyed a school, a church, and a few other structures. Later, it prompted thousands of rural citizens to move through a traffic jam to escape the fire. The fire, quite incidentally, exploded late Monday after burning quietly since the evening on Saturday.
Since then, it has managed to triple in size overnight- from 6,500 acres to around 22,919 acres on Tuesday. Needless to say, it was assisted by strong winds which helped it spread through areas that had relatively steep terrain.
The Caldor Fire Posing Quite A Problem
The Caldor Fire grew so rapidly that the officials of Cal Fire apologized for not keeping a map of the entire fire zone on hand. The fire managed to cross the Mormon Emigrant Trail- east of Sly Park and kept moving northeasterly. The County Sheriff’s Office in El Dorado put out orders for evacuations for a far broader area in and around Pollock Pines- which was the most heavily populated area in the area.
Dusty Martin, the incident commander of the Caldor Fire, stated that they were definitely in for a major firefight. He further stated that the multiple fires which were burning in the state were making it really difficult for the Fire Department to bring in more personnel which would allow them to push enough equipment through the area. Unfortunately, they were all looking in the same place- and the resources were exhaustible.
Fire officials managed to mention that the Caldor Fire had gone ahead and destroyed quite an unknown number of structures. The journalists at Sacramento Bee discovered the burnt and smoking ruins of buildings as well as cars along the String Canyon Road in the Grizzly Flats area. Some of the relatively well-known structures around the area which got burnt were the Walt Tyler Elementary School, the post office, and the Grizzly Flats Community Church.