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Berkeley Camp Evacuated as Tahoe Fire Rages

A camp operated by the city of Berkeley has been evacuated due to a large-scale fire that is sweeping the area around South Lake Tahoe and destroying hundreds of homes.

The fire, which was first reported at 2 p.m. on Sunday, had spread across 2,400 acres of land as of this afternoon and is positioned just outside of the South Lake Tahoe city boundary, said Todd Chaponot, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service at South Lake Tahoe.

Approximately 180 to 225 structures in the South Lake Tahoe area, including homes, outbuildings and storage facilities, had been destroyed in the fire as of this afternoon. An evacuation center at the South Lake Tahoe Parks and Recreation Department is currently housing 200 people, Chaponot said.

Berkeley Echo Lake Camp, a summer camp leased to the city of Berkeley through the U.S. Forest Service and located near South Lake Tahoe, has not been hit by the flames, as the camp is a mile to a mile-and-a-half away from the fire, said Scott Ferris, the youth and recreation services manager for Berkeley.

Ferris said the camp has seen a lot of smoke from the fire and has evacuated the 25 volunteers and employees who were preparing the facility over the weekend for incoming campers.

The volunteers were sent home, while the six employees were sent to nearby Camp Concord, Ferris said.

There were no campers present when the fire began, but a family camp program that would have welcomed 40 to 50 people was slated to begin on Wednesday, Ferris said.

Those 40-50 campers are now tentatively scheduled to arrive with another group on Friday, Ferris said.

Ferris said campgrounds were evacuated to avoid smoke inhalation by volunteers and employees.

“The air quality is bad. It’s not good stuff to breathe,” he said.

The causes of the fire are not yet known, but a team led by the U.S. Forest Service is conducting an incident investigation, Chaponot said.

As of 9 a.m. this morning, the fire was 5 percent contained. Chaponot said he could not speculate as to when the fire would be completely contained.

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