Caldor Fire Expands, Forces Evacuations Near Pollock Pines In El Dorado County
The Caldor Fire grew dramatically overnight into Tuesday morning, forcing new evacuations south of Pollock Pines in El Dorado County.
The fire started Saturday evening in the Eldorado National Forest near the Grizzly Flats area off Omo Ranch Road near Santiago Creek. As of Wednesday morning, the fire had grown to 6,500 acres with no containment.
The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office has evacuation orders in place and is updating an evacuation map here. Live cameras of the fire are available at Alert Wildfire.
Find updated information on the InciWeb incident page, the Eldorado National Forest Facebook page and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Facebook page. Sign up for El Dorado County emergency alerts here. Sign up for Amador County emergency alerts here.
Reporters in the area are showing traffic on and around Interstate 50 heading to Sacramento.
Firefighters reported that many buildings were damaged or destroyed overnight in the Grizzly Flats, Somerset and Omo Ranch areas. According to Cal Fire, two people were injured near Grizzly Flats in separate incidents and transported by air ambulance to local hospitals. One person had serious injuries.
Sky Stone, a resident of Somerset southeast of Pollock Pines, said he woke up at 5:30 a.m. to find his power out and multiple messages on his phone telling him to evacuate. Soon, El Dorado County Sheriff's vehicles were passing his home with sirens blaring.
"Everybody was just really shocked that it had changed direction in the middle of the night and headed back down the mountain because prior to that, it was on the other side of the hill, on the side of the road where it started and was burning up the hill," Stone said. "So nobody had any expectation that it would come back towards our neighborhood or wipe out Grizzly Flats up above. That's really shocking."
Stone said he was out of his home in half an hour. He was then told he had more time to pack up his belongings, but the rapidly changing situation has him uneasy.
"It's very disconcerting. This is scary how fast it spread unexpectedly and the fact that they don't have enough resources to battle it is extremely frightening to me," he said.
Here is information from the California Office Of Emergency Services and El Dorado County Sheriff's Office as of 1 p.m.
Evacuation Orders are in effect for the following areas:
Barney Ridge east of Omo Ranch community
Leoni Meadows
Pi’Pi Valley
Dogtown Creek
Caldor area east of Omo Ranch
Pi’Pi area to NS road.
Grizzly Flats/Somerset – all roads off of Grizzly Flat Rd., east of Mt. Aukum Rd. in Somerset(Known as Four Corners) into Grizzly Flats Proper
Happy Valley – All roads off of Happy Valley Rd, east of Mt. Aukum Rd. in Somerset to Sciaroni
Pollock Pines – East of Sly Park Road. South of Hwy 50 up to Ice House Road. North of Mormon Emigrant Trail (including Jenkinson’s/Sly Park Lake)
Evacuation warnings are in effect for the following area:
Omo Ranch Proper
Omo Ranch East
Omo Ranch South
South of Hwy 50 to Pleasant Valley Road. From Sly Park Road, west to Snows Road and Newtown Road, including the community of Rancho Del Sol.
EVACUATION CENTERS:
Cameron Park CSD, 2502 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park, CA 95682
The Fireman’s Hall - FULL: 3734 China Garden Road, Diamond Springs, CA 95619
ANIMAL EVACUATION CENTERS:
El Dorado County Animal Services: Call (530)-621-5795 (Small animals)
LARGE ANIMAL SHELTER: Amador County Fairgrounds, 18621 Sherwood Street, Plymouth, CA 95669 (Empire Street Gate)
https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/08/17/caldor-fire-expands-forces-evacuations-near-pollock-pines-in-el-dorado-county/