From the Guardian today:
With winds finally turning in their favor, firefighters are throwing all their resources into boxing a California blaze burning mere miles from Lake Tahoe and neighboring Nevada.
Three days of fiercely gusting winds had driven the Caldor fire east through the rugged Sierra Nevada, forcing tens of thousands of people from the region of forests, mountain hamlets, resorts and alpine lakes.
Overnight, thousands of firefighters from around the US battled the blaze, which by Thursday morning stretched across roughly 210,259 acres (850 sq km), and achieved 25% containment.
Winds were expected to calm heading into the weekend, although the humidity remained low and the eastern side of the vast wildfire was still burning trees and running through explosively dry grasslands into areas hard for firefighters to reach, authorities said. The blaze was also throwing sparks that caught trees and created spot fires up to a mile ahead of the main wall of flames.
