Lake Tahoe Suffocates With Smoke

Smoke from the Caldor fire is overwhelming one of California’s most iconic regions — and confounding thousands of newcomers who fled there in recent months to escape the coronavirus.

TAHOE CITY, Calif. — When the pandemic swept through California last year, Lake Tahoe, the azure gem of the Sierra Nevada, swarmed with city dwellers fleeing to the purity of its alpine air. Now the stampede has reversed. With a fast-expanding wildfire roaring just one ridge away from the Tahoe basin, residents were in flight this week from smoke so toxic and thick that it spiked past the highest levels on air quality charts. Pablo Durana, a cinematographer who had just bought a house in South Lake Tahoe last year, was bound for a friend’s place in Santa Monica with his partner.