The Caldor Fire reached the Lake Tahoe Basin on Thursday night, threatening thousands of homes and businesses in the area. A mandatory evacuation order is now in place. As of this morning, the fire has burned around 200,000 acres and is about 16% contained.
The fire risk across the state is so high right now that the federal government is closing all of California’s national forests for at least two weeks. That includes the Labor Day weekend.
This fire season is expected to be worse than last year’s record fire season, when around 4 million acres burned. And last year topped 2018, when two major fires erupted on the same day in early November — the Woolsey Fire in Malibu and the Camp Fire in Paradise. The Camp Fire became the deadliest fire in state history.
A new documentary, “Bring Your Own Brigade,” looks at both the Woolsey and Camp Fires from three years ago. Filmmaker Lucy Walker finds the usual culprit — climate change — played a role. But she also discovered that we can do something to prevent future fires like those.