Firefighters work to keep California fire from Lake Tahoe

An army of firefighters is trying to keep a huge wildfire from pushing toward Lake Tahoe, the blue alpine lake surrounded by resort communities straddling the California-Nevada state line

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- An army of firefighters worked Tuesday to try to keep a huge wildfire from pushing toward Lake Tahoe, the blue alpine lake surrounded by resort communities straddling the California-Nevada state line. The Caldor Fire, growing explosively at times, has scorched about 184 square miles (476 square kilometers) and destroyed at least 455 homes since breaking out Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada southwest of Lake Tahoe. Just 9% contained and a threat to more than 17,000 structures, the Caldor Fire has become the nation’s No. 1 priority for firefighting resources, Chief Thom Porter, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said during a briefing Monday. “It is knocking on the door to the Lake Tahoe basin,” he said. “We have all efforts in place to keep it out of the basin, but we do need to also be aware that is a possibility based on the way the fires have been burning.”