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Fire service in the Sierra Nevada: Snow cannons spray water onto the hills of Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe
Photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr. / picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com
Large-scale operation of the fire department at Lake Tahoe in the western United States: More than 4,100 firefighters and helpers are currently fighting forest fires in the picturesque mountain area east of the California capital Sacramento.
According to the authorities, the so-called Caldor fire has spread to an area of more than 800 square kilometers.
Five people have been injured so far, including three firefighters.
According to official information, the flames have already destroyed 675 houses in the region.
Tens of thousands of people were asked to leave the southern edge of the vast Lake Tahoe.
The fire brigade ordered the evacuation of the threatened areas as a precautionary measure.
In the neighboring state of Nevada, too, people had to evacuate their homes.
The fire, which had been raging for more than two weeks, had spread to the east into the holiday area at the weekend.
In the Heavenly Mountain Resort ski area, people have started spraying water onto the hills from snow cannons.
The resort is located on the border of the US states of California and Nevada in the Carson Range, an eastern part of the Sierra Nevada, on the south bank of Lake Tahoe.
"Light at the end of the tunnel"
On Wednesday, firefighters tried to prevent the fires from spreading to a resort on the southern tip of Lake Tahoe.
With low humidity and gusts of wind, the flames would wander from treetop to treetop, said California fire protection expert Stephen Vollmer.
The flames have been driven by violent winds for the past few days.
The region has been suffering from drought for months.
From Thursday on, however, the winds are expected to weaken significantly.
"There's a light at the end of the tunnel," said meteorologist Jim Dudley.
Initially, thick clouds of smoke hindered the fire fighting from the air.
There are now almost two dozen helicopters and three large fire-fighting planes in the region.
On Tuesday evening (local time) the conflagration was 18 percent under control.
The rescue teams made slight progress in containment compared to the previous day.
ala / dpa