The Lake Tahoe Ironman Competition scheduled for Sunday was canceled because of poor air quality caused by the King Fire. The smoke from the fire can be seen from hundreds of miles away. The air quality has been classified as “hazardous” in some areas.
About 60 miles east of Sacramento, the fire threatens roughly 12,000 homes, according to CBS San Francisco. It has already destroyed 82,000 acres over 128 square miles.
Authorities say the fire was intentionally set a little more than a week ago. Thousands of homes have been evacuated.
CBS Sacramento reported cases of homeowners who have lost their homes because of the huge King Fire. Garry Dykstra, who lost his home, said, “Devastating, absolutely devastating because we built the house ourselves. We saw and heard propane tanks going up, exploding and just going up one after another, and we … felt that our house was gone. I just kind of knew it,” His wife Sally added, “It’s pretty hard because there’s only 23 or 24 places up there, so that means just about all of us have had some kind of devastation.”
Pete Lacombe, a former firefighter forced to live at an evacuation center for a week although his home is still standing, told CBS San Francisco: “I put in 20 years at the fire department, I’ve seen these scenes all over during those 20 years, but I never been on this side. It’s different. It’s strange…It’s all the wind, as soon as they get it out is when I’ll be happy. But] another wind could kick up. It ain’t over till it’s over. It’s all on the wind.”
Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP
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